


New Beginnings

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-13
Updated: 2008-11-13
Packaged: 2019-05-15 04:27:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 23,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: An AU fic that starts with Inauguration Day Over There and takes a turn at AU-ville.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

“We're going to a ball.” 

“Balls are fun.” 

“We're actually going to eight of them.” 

“Eight times the fun.” 

“I was actually the one who hit the window. The rest of them went to school on my throw.” 

********* 

Toby continued to watch the interaction across the back seat of the taxi between Josh and Donna. Donna was perched on Josh’s lap and his right arm was wrapped tight around her waist, with his hand on her stomach, under her coat...his coat. They were smiling softly at each other and whispering about...well, Toby couldn’t hear what, and he didn’t particularly care. What he did care about was that the second Josh formed that first snowball, he had passed the point of no return. This thing with Josh and Donna was now out there in the open, and for reasons surpassing Toby’s understanding, he did absolutely nothing to discourage it tonight. In fact, he joined in with everyone else in the snowball lobbing. 

Maybe it was the way they looked at each other tonight; maybe it was the sound of Josh’s voice when Toby heard him tell her she looked amazing; maybe it was the memory of the look on Donna’s face when he told her Josh was shot; or maybe it was that Toby had too many scotches tonight. In any event, all was forgiven between them tonight when she walked outside. 

When they arrived at the Hay Adams Hotel for the Senate’s ball, they arrived a few minutes after the motorcade had. Donna got out of the cab first, and stopped right outside the car door. When Josh got out, he grabbed her hand and they walked inside together. 

“Well, I was only kidding around before when I said we’d have a whole new story by the end of the night,” began Danny as he stood next to Toby and they walked behind Josh and Donna. “but as it looks, I was probably right.” 

“He just went to pick her up.” Toby replied. “She’s his assistant; he shouldn’t just let her think her job hangs in the balance.” 

“You’re just going to keep towing that company line, huh?” Danny smirked. 

“Until I have reason not to.” Toby replied as they entered the ballroom. Immediately, their eyes fell on Josh and Donna on the dance floor. They were dancing very close, still smiling softly at each other, not caring the slightest bit that there were any number of Josh’s enemies on the dance floor just waiting to use something like this against him; not caring that Katie from the press corps just took a picture of them with her digital camera; and certainly not noticing that there was anyone else in the room, much less the leader of the free world. 

And that’s when Toby saw it; saw the devotion and loyalty they had for each other; the way she looked at him like he could do anything; the way he looked at her like he was drawing his inspiration right out of her soul, the magic of the night finally pushing aside the forbidden aspect of their relationship and putting it front and center. 

“That’s not enough reason to?” Danny goaded Toby. 

“Spread the word, Danny,” Toby replied. “anyone on a witch hunt will get the ugly side of me.” 

“There’s an ugly side of you?” Danny mocked. 

“Shut up.” 

******** 

Josh didn’t know what it was about her tonight, but he’d been drawn to her all night. It was her hair; it was her dress; it was her scent; it was her smile; it was her eyes. It was all in her eyes. He figured out Jack gave the quote and came to find her. And when she came outside, her eyes were just for him again. They smiled for him, and they’d been smiling for him all night. The more he looked at her, the more pulled in he was. And since he’d spent nearly the entire night looking at her, he was pretty far in it now. 

She was back in his arms now, after he danced with CJ and she danced with Will, and he spent most of the dance with CJ watching her dance with Will. Those men of words were dangerous after all. Josh thought Will was kind of dorky, but he was an excellent writer and who knew what he might say that might sweep her off her feet. But he hadn’t and she was back with him. 

The skin of her back was soft under his hand, and he wondered if all her skin felt that way. He wondered how long his fingers had been lightly stroking the small of her back as they danced before he noticed it. He’d notice right off that her fingers were lightly stroking the hair at the nape of his neck the entire dance, and it was driving him crazy. 

Toby had been watching him all night, ever since they went to pick her up. He didn’t know how to explain why he did what he did; or why he was acting the way he was now. He was just going with it because it felt so right. Jack Reese made him insane with jealousy, and he wasn’t sorry to see him go. Any man that would let their girlfriend take the fall for them, was only a fraction of a man and unworthy of Donna. She was better than that. 

She also didn’t seem to be all that broken hearted...especially the way she was resting her head on his shoulder. 

It wasn’t until he realized that they weren’t even moving anymore, but just standing there in the middle of the dance floor, in each other’s arms, that his head snapped up, and he led her off the dance floor for a drink. He had to regroup. This was all getting...not them. He needed to figure this out. He needed to talk to her. He needed to touch her. He needed to kiss her. 

He really needed to get a grip now. 

She was laughing and talking with Toby now, and Josh was suddenly jealous that at that moment, it was Toby who had put the smile on her face and not him. How many drinks had he had? He couldn’t remember having more than one. He wasn’t drunk then. He was...what was he? He was a mess was what he was. 

He was having feelings for his assistant of...of...of...intense attraction tonight. Who was he kidding? He’d been having these feelings for a while now. They surfaced a couple of months ago. Why he helped her get together with Jack instead of declaring his undying...like...for her was beyond him. 

But he saw the way people were looking at them tonight, and he didn’t care. There would be people asking questions tomorrow. She would probably be one of them. Katie Witt took a picture of them earlier. There would definitely be things to answer for. But, strangely, he didn’t care. He didn’t care who he had to answer to; he didn’t care what the people watching thought. He cared only that she was facing him right now and smiling. 

TBC


	2. New Beginnings

Donna sighed as she and Josh entered her dark apartment in the early morning hours. She handed him back his spare key to her apartment and turned to switch on a lamp in the living room, she stepped out of her shoes and turned around to face him. This was it. The end of the best night of her life. Eight balls with her prince charming and now it was coming to an end. He left her arms for two dances that evening, one with the First Lady; and one with C.J. Other than that, he danced exclusively with her. Amy had tried to goad him away at one point and he refused. Donna made a note to track down Katie from the press corps on Monday morning to ask for a copy of the picture she took. 

“Thank you, Josh.” she smiled quietly. 

“For?” 

“Best night of my life.” 

“Sorry it started out so crappy.” 

“I think you made up for it in spades.” 

“Well, you broke up with your boyfriend, Donna,” Josh reminded. “I thought the usual beer and Ben and Jerry’s could take a back seat tonight.” 

“That’s right.” Donna replied, as if she only just remembered. “I did break up with my boyfriend tonight. Funny how I seemed to have forgotten that.” 

“Well...goodnight.” Josh said softly. He turned to the door, missing how Donna’s face fell in disappointment. She knew things had shifted between them that night and that he felt it, too. How long was he going to deny this thing between them? How long were they going to watch each other date the wrong people? And more importantly, why wasn’t he opening the door? He seemed to be rooted to the spot. 

“Josh?” she asked hesitantly. He turned around and faced her. Looking in his eyes, she knew that she wasn’t misreading him; but she couldn’t force him to act. He had to make the decision on his own. He held her gaze for a few moments. 

“Screw it.” he said, pushing away from the door and over to her. He closed the distance between them and cupped her face in his hands. 

“Think about this for a second.” Donna half-heartedly warned. 

“I don’t want to think about it,” he replied huskily, his lips just a breath away from hers. “I want to change our relationship.” 

“`Bout time.” she replied. He smiled slightly as his lips touched hers and she felt a surge of electricity. Oh my God, this was really happening, she thought. What she waited five years for; what she dreamed about and wished for. She felt a tear slide down her cheek, and when he saw it, he gently brushed it away. 

She stepped backwards and pulled him with her, until she felt a wall behind her. They kissed deeply and Donna pulled his shirt out of his pants. He began to kiss her neck, as she worked on his zipper. 

“Donna.” he said against her throat. 

“Yes?” she panted. 

“I don’t want our first time to be up against the wall.” 

“First time?” she asked coyly. 

“Well, if you decide that I’m no good at this, I don’t want our ONLY time be up against a wall, either.” 

“Good?” she replied with a sigh as he unzipped her dress. “It’s you and me. I don’t see how it’s going to be anything short of amazing.” 

He pulled away from her, just far enough to look into her eyes and smile. Amazing. It was his word that he used for her. He said it tonight to her, standing there in the snow. Their history flashed quickly through his mind, the good and the bad; everything that had ultimately brought them to this point. 

“It is you and me.” he said trailing the back side of his fingers down her cheek. 

She brought a trembling hand up to capture his. “You’re nervous?” he smiled seeing her hand, as she nodded. “Don’t be.” 

“Kay.” she nodded again. She looked deep into his eyes, looking for any reason there to stop this, any hint of hesitation on his part. She leaned in to kiss him again. And the make out session against the wall, lasted several minutes. 

Donna dropped her head back and sighed as he rained kisses down her neck and along her collarbone. She couldn’t believe this was happening. After all these years, after all they’d been through, it was finally their time. She picked her head back up and he immediately captured her lips with his and she pushed his jacket off and started working on his tie. By the time they’d fumbled their way back to Donna’s bedroom, Josh was in a t-shirt and boxers, and Donna’s dress was off revealing a silky black, sexy slip, and there was a trail of clothes behind them. They tumbled back onto the bed and Donna straddled Josh’s lap. He sat up and she pulled his shirt over his head, immediately giving her pause. It was the first time she’d seen him without a shirt since his recovery. The scar bisecting his chest was nothing more than a white line. She paused and ran her finger lightly down it. 

“You’re the only one that’s -” he began. 

“You’re kidding.” she said snapping her eyes back to his. He shook his head in response. 

“Not even -” 

“No, not even her.” he confirmed. “I’m damaged goods.” 

“You’re perfectly healthy.” 

“I meant my psyche.” 

“It’s the mark of a genius.” she whispered. He was going to make a crack to her about feeding his ego, but decided against it. She was being genuine, and he didn’t want to break the mood. 

She looked back down and drew her finger down it again, then placed a light kiss right in the center of it, directly over his heart. Josh’s breath caught at the incredibly intimate gesture. 

They worked their way out of the rest of their clothes as they turned and scooted together up to the head of bed and Josh pulled the blankets down, settling Donna against the pillows. He looked down into her eyes, which were shining with desire for him. She looked at him differently than any other woman had before. Oh, he’d seen plenty of lust reflected back at him before from others, but she looked at him differently; she always had. He’d loved her for a long time, and he’d say the words, but oddly, he didn’t think that’s what tonight was about. 

Tonight was about five years of longing; five years of late nights at work; of red lights; of untaken opportunities; of red dresses and shared beers; of date sabotaging and the fear of rectangles; of unread diaries and hospital beds. This night was about her and him, reconnecting with his better half and coming full circle with her. She ran her fingers lightly up and down his chest and leaned up kiss his neck. He groaned her name when he felt her fingers drop further and close around him. He laced his fingers with her other hand and dropped his head into her shoulder. 

Her hand on him felt so good, he began to see spots. When his vision began to clear, he began to kiss his way down her body, stopping to spend some time acquainting himself with her beautiful breasts, dipping his tongue erotically into her belly button and smiling when she let out a gasp when she realized his intent. She pulled a pillow over her face and clutched it tightly to her, focusing on the man currently bringing her to the edge of reason. The build up in her was nearly blinding. Josh. Her Josh, causing sensations in her that she clearly knew only he could. Her orgasm slammed through her with a surprising force and she called out his name. He kissed his way back up her body with the same thoroughness with which he’d previously kissed down. 

“I could definitely get used to hearing you say my name like that.” he said before capturing her lips. 

“I think I could definitely get used to you making me say your name like that.” she panted. 

“I bet I could do it again.” he smirked. 

“I know you can.” she said 

Her breath caught as she realized he was hovering on the brink of entering her. Looking at her with such intensity that she thought she’d melt from the heat. The fact that this was a turning point for them wasn’t lost on either one of them. She knew she’d never look at him the same way again if they stopped right now, but when they were finished with what they were about to do, she knew she’d never be able to be without him, and he seemed to know it, too. There wouldn’t be any need for protection. Neither of them had said a word about it. There just wasn’t any other way for them to do this. There had been too many barriers between them over the years that there could be none tonight. 

She brought her hands up to his face and caressed his cheeks with her thumbs. “Love me, Josh.” 

“Oh God, Donna.” he sighed as he sank deep within her. “I already do. Oh God, I do.” What he was feeling right at that moment was so intense, it brought tears to his eyes. His Donna, beneath him finally, where he had dreamed of her being, saying things to him that made his mind spin. 

He began to move when he thought he was about to lose control. Why, oh why had they never done this before? Why had they been so afraid of something so amazing? He was dimly aware that she moved with him as she always had, perfectly in tandem with him. 

Donna was reeling, from the emotions and sensations that were coursing continuously through her. She knew with certainty now that she was meant for him and he for her. The course that had brought them to this moment, while rocky, was worth virtually every minute. 

She felt him tense above her. He called out her name and dropped his head back to her shoulder and she reciprocated in kind. He stayed there on top of her for a few minutes, while their breathing began to return to normal. She drew little circles on his shoulder and he eventually rolled to the side and pulled her against him. 

“Told you I could make you do it again.” he smiled dropping a kiss on her shoulder. 

“I never doubted you.” She turned into him and kissed him softly. 

“Never?” 

“No, never.” 

“You’ve been reeling me in for five years.” he accused with a smile. 

“You were a little slow on the uptake.” she smiled. 

“No, I wasn’t.” he said losing his smile and shaking his head. 

“No.” she agreed. “You weren’t.” 

TBC


	3. New Beginnings

Later, they laid naked and tangled up in Donna’s bed. Josh held Donna close. She was sleeping so peacefully, he could swear she was purring. Josh, however, was wide awake staring at the ceiling. He was bewitched, he thought. No, not bewitched. He was bewitched by Amy and that lasted like ten minutes. 

He was in love, and he’d told her. 

He’d never felt more content with any other woman. He’d be perfectly happy to lay here with her for the rest of his life. He’d never thought that before. He wasn’t even freaked out right now. With Mandy and Amy he was freaked out immediately after this part. They wanted to move in with him. They soon discovered he was actually a bit selfish. They would discover he was actually a pretty crappy boyfriend because he worked so much and was constantly canceling plans, literally at the last minute. He always forgot their anniversaries and birthdays. Actually, he never forgot his and Donna’s anniversary, and she never even reminded him of it. He knew it annoyed the hell out of her to count it in April, but he did every year anyway. The anniversary in April meant something completely different to him than it did to her. 

She stirred against him and he turned to look down at her. She was smiling lazily up at him. Then suddenly, her eyes flew opened. “We’re going to get fired!” She sat up and looked at him. He didn’t move. “Josh!” she shoved at his chest, but he only smiled up at her. 

“Donna, we’re really not going to get fired.” he assured. “I’ll talk to Leo and figure something out. You might have to switch departments.” 

“Oh no.” said Donna said shaking her head. “I can’t switch departments.” 

“You said you wanted to grow in your job.” Josh reminded her. 

“Yeah, but now I’m feeling territorial.” Josh smiled at her. She was always fiercely loyal to him. “Why aren’t you freaked out right now?” she demanded. “I should be talking you down from the ceiling right now.” 

“Because I’m not freaked out.” he explained. 

“At all?” 

“At all.” She seemed to ponder that for a second. 

“You’re not afraid you’re going to screw up?” she asked. “Usually after you get to this part with someone, you’re telling me that you’re going to screw it up. This is where the wheels fall off the wagon.” 

“You think I’m going to screw it up?” 

“I don’t see how you could.” she answered. “Unlike the other girls, I actually know exactly what I’m getting.” Josh thought about that for a second. That was dead on. There were no secrets between them. None. They worked the same hours, at the same place, fought for the same side. Ah, yeah, thought Josh, this was love. “Mary Marsh is going to go on Crossfire though and call me a whore.” Donna continued looking down. 

“Then I’ll go on Larry King and make her sorry.” Josh replied. She met his eyes and smiled, curling back down against him. “What do we have to do today?” 

“At work?” she asked. 

“Yeah. What’s waiting for us?” 

“Nothing that can’t wait until Monday.” she hedged. He began to smile at the thought of spending the rest of the weekend in bed with her. “Oh, wait, no.” she said. “The marriage recognition act. You’ve been avoiding it all week.” 

“Shit.” he sighed rubbing his face. “Okay, it’s 6 o’clock now. Let’s go do that stuff now, so we can get out of there, go back to my place and do this again. We’ll have the whole rest of the day.” 

Donna groaned and huffed. Nope, she had no pretenses. She knew exactly what she was getting. But that didn’t mean she still couldn’t have herself some fun. He was about to get up when she rolled on top of him and pinned him down. “I’ve got a counter offer.” she announced. 

“Okay.” he quipped. “I’m open to negotiations. Let’s hear it.” 

“Let’s do this again, first.” she said leaning down and nibbling on his lower lip. “Then go to work, leave early, go back to your place and do it a bunch more.” 

“You make a very compelling argument.” He flipped her onto her back and pinned her in response. “I accept the counteroffer.” 

********* 

Donna was logging onto her computer at 8:05. She propped one leg up on her chair as she typed in her password. She loved Saturdays at the White House. They were so laid back. There was still a lot of people there, but they were dressed down and relaxed. She herself was wearing a pair of worn jeans and a black, ribbed turtleneck. 

“You’re here early.” came a woman’s voice behind her. Donna jumped at the interruption and turned to see CJ standing there, likewise dressed down. 

“I’m always here on Saturday.” replied Donna. 

“Not this early.” CJ countered. “We usually don’t see you for another couple hours.” 

“Oh, well I have some stuff I wanted to do later, so I thought I’d get in here early.” Donna explained hoping CJ couldn’t see through her. 

“Oh.” CJ said. “Josh in yet?” Donna nodded and logged onto her email. “He got in a couple of minutes ago, too. He went down to the mess for coffee.” 

******** 

Josh walked into the near deserted mess and spotted Danny at a corner table typing on his laptop. He walked over to the table and sat opposite him. Without saying a word, he folded his arms on the table and leaned in to stare at Danny. Without looking up from what he was working on, Danny said, “Why the hell are you looking at me like that?” Josh continued to stare pointedly at him. “Don’t give me the Bartlet’s Bulldog look, Josh. You’ve been talking to Toby.” Danny ordered. “I’m the guy that helped you throw snowballs at her window.” 

“You’re the only one who was there that doesn’t work for us.” Josh pointed out. 

“Your secret is safe with me. My readers don’t care who you kiss. It’s gossip, but it’s not news. But I’m your friend, so I have to ask, you did go home with her; right?” Josh continued his stare, but then started to smile. 

“She’s afraid Mary Marsh is going to call her a whore on Crossfire.” Josh said sitting back in his chair. 

“Well, that’s the sad part.” Danny said finally looking up from his computer. “Sooner or later, the secret will get out, and people like Mary Marsh will go on t.v. and question the morals of the Bartlet administration, as well as Donna’s character. Your friends know the truth, but your enemies have big mouths.” 

“Then I’ll have myself a Mary Marsh lunch.” Josh said. 

“You and I know you can’t go on t.v. and beat up every bully because they pick on your girlfriend.” Danny replied. 

“Watch me.” Josh retorted. 

“I really like seeing you on t.v., Josh, but people have been talking about you and Donna for years.” Danny reminded. “Like I said though, your secret’s safe with me.” He packed up his lap top, clapped Josh on the shoulder and left the mess. 

TBC


	4. New Beginnings

CJ spent all morning watching Josh and Donna down the corridor. Something was up. There was definitely something different there. They were just as in sync as they always were, one fluid, flawless team. But something wasn’t the same. They seemed more considerate of each other. Josh wasn’t barking at her. He wasn’t going so far as to use the intercom, but he wasn’t bellowing through the door at her. And they seemed to be working faster today, too. Not that anyone could ever call those two slackers. They didn’t put in 15 hour days everyday for nothing. But, they seemed in a bit of a rush today, even for the fast paced work environment of a normal White House day, which this wasn’t. This was a Saturday. It seemed like they had something they had to do later or something. Donna did say she had to get stuff done, but that was hardly ever a reason for Josh to work faster to help her get out of here sooner. 

Toby had told her about the snowball incident the night before. She smiled remembering how surprised she was at how romantic Josh could be when it came to Donna. Of course, CJ found that Josh frequently surprised her when it came to Donna. Something certainly shifted in their world last night; it was becoming more and more apparent. 

“Mi amore!” CJ called to Josh as she saw him walking down the corridor, she waved him into her office. When he walked through the door, she motioned for him to close it. 

“What’s going on?” he asked. CJ closing the door meant she had to talk to him about something no one else could hear. He didn’t know anything was going on. It was kind of surprising that he would be the last to know something. He was usually one of the first. 

“What the hell?” she demanded. 

“What?” he asked sitting down on her couch. 

“What’s going on?” 

“I don’t know. You called me in here. What’s going on?” 

CJ wasn’t buying it. Josh usually had no poker face. But maybe he wasn’t expecting her to ask him anything. 

“Is everything all right with Donna?” she asked. 

“I suppose.” Josh answered. “Why? Did she say something to you?” 

“No.” CJ answered, taking note that Josh seemed to relax at her answer. She decided to press on. “But I have eyes in my head and you two are my friends.” 

“So, what does that mean?” Josh asked. 

“You tell me.” 

“CJ, I’m not good at these women head games. I have enough shrinks in my life. Okay? Just get to whatever the hell it is you want to say.” 

“It’s happened.” CJ stated bluntly. “Your relationship has finally changed. You’ve morphed.” 

“We’ve morphed?” Josh smiled. 

“Listen, idiot boy,” CJ snapped using her favorite nick name for him when she was pissed at him. “You know that as your friend, I really couldn’t be happier about this, right? I mean, everyone wants to see you two together. Katie from the press corps showed me quite the captivating picture this morning, she actually freaking sighed when she was talking about it. I’m sure I also don’t have to tell you that as this administration’s press secretary, I can’t protect you if I don’t know things.” 

“Protect us against who?” Josh replied. “Who is it exactly that’s going to care?” 

“So, it’s true.” she surmised with a smile. Josh refused to meet her eyes. If CJ figured it out, how long until anyone else did? “Mi amore?” she prodded. “Me thinks you’re someone else’s amore now?” Okay. Josh couldn’t hold it in after that and he started to laugh. “How long have I been in the dark?” 

“Not even 24 hours.” Josh conceded. “But, CJ, she’s afraid that we’ll get fired, people will say mean things about her, they’ll question how she got her job.” 

“Leo is the person who’s name is on her paperwork in personnel.” CJ reminded. “Nobody can say anything about that. And you’re certainly not going to get fired over it.” 

“But the other stuff.” 

“Yeah.” CJ sighed. “But that’s my job.” When Josh said nothing, CJ repeated. “Right Josh? That’s my job. Somebody says something nasty about her, I respond. Right?” Josh mumbled something that CJ couldn’t make out. “Right!” she demanded. 

“Right! Right!” he huffed. “Fine. 

“You’ll stay away from microphones, cameras, anyone who carries one, people with pads and tape recorders, and far away from my press room.” CJ finalized as Josh nodded. “Who else knows?” 

“Well, Danny was with me, Will, Charlie and Toby last night when we went to her apartment, and I saw him down in the mess this morning.” Josh said. 

“Danny?” she asked “Danny knows.” 

“I talked to him this morning. He said he wasn’t going to say anything.” 

“Nobody that works here?” CJ asked. 

“CJ, this thing is like 18 hours old.” Josh pointed out. “I told you Donna’s paranoid we’ll get fired and I don’t know what else. She’s afraid of what people here will think of her, too.” 

“They’ll think whatever they want.” CJ qualified. “But with you around, I don’t think anyone’s going to say anything to her about it. Everyone except the senior staff is afraid of you.” 

“It’s coming in handy now.” 

“Okay. So, it’s you, me, Donna and the Washington Post that know and anyone who accompanied you on your little excursion.” 

“Seems so.” 

“Okay. So, if I heard right, it was you, Danny, Will, Charlie and Toby at her apartment. Not to mention anyone who looked at you last night.” said CJ. “Katie from the press corps took a picture and Danny went with you. It’ll be out there. Maybe you could have tried to be a little more inconspicuous.” 

“Well, I can’t help it. I’m in love.” Josh said. 

“Love?!” CJ shrieked. “Surely not, mi amore. Joshua Lyman doesn’t fall in love. Joshua Lyman gets bewitched, ensorcelled; he doesn’t fall in love. When you were with Mandy, you told me you weren’t in love with her; when you were with Amy, you told me you weren’t in love with her.” 

“It would appear because that whole time I was in love with Donnatella Moss.” Josh explained. “Which reminds me,” Josh continued ignoring CJ’s goofy grin. “Donna said something last night that’s been bugging me.” 

“Trouble in paradise already?” CJ quipped. 

“No. She told me that when I was in surgery, she had to be sedated. Nobody ever told me that before.”He said thinking back to a conversation they’d had later in the evening. 

“Oh.” CJ replied. She always got a little hesitant when Rosslyn came up, especially when it came up around Josh. 

“I was wondering if you could shed a little light on that for me.” he hedged. 

The last thing that CJ wanted to talk to Josh about was that night. She didn’t like thinking about it herself. She didn’t like thinking about waiting all those hours to hear about her friend, and the nightmares that followed. But she also knew that Josh was in surgery for 14 hours, spent about 12 weeks recovering after that, and tended to get frustrated that he suffered the most, yet knew the least about the actual night. So, whenever he brought it up, which was admittedly pretty infrequently, CJ always felt beholden to fill in the gaps for him. 

“Donna got to the hospital about an hour after we all did.” CJ began. “As long as I live, I will never forget the look on her face when Toby explained to her what happened to you. It was like watching someone have an out of body experience. She sat downstairs for a little while, but other than asking Abbey if she should be doing anything at the office, she didn’t say a word to anyone. You were probably about four hours into your surgery when Abbey arranged for Donna to go up and watch. At first, we thought it would be a good idea for her to see you, really help process what was going on. God Josh, until that moment, I don’t think I was ever more wrong about anything in my life. Once she got up there, we couldn’t get her to leave. She was up there for eight hours. Abbey asked her if she wanted something to help her sleep and she refused. I told her to go home and get some sleep and we’d call her when you were out of surgery. She told me that it was her job to stay with you. She told me that during transition it was explained to all the assistants what their jobs were if there was ever an assassination attempt, and her job was...” 

“To find me and stay with me.” Josh finished quietly. 

“Right.” CJ confirmed. “So she said that’s exactly what she was going to do. Only it had now been 12 hours after the shooting, and she’d been awake since whatever time she woke up the previous day, something like 30 hours. So, Abbey and I decided that we had to take matters into our own hands, so to speak.” 

“What’d you do, stab her with a syringe when she wasn’t looking?” Josh demanded. 

“We didn’t do anything remotely that diabolical, Josh.” CJ admonished. “We slipped Nyquil in her iced tea and put her in a bed.” 

Josh gaped at CJ in pure astonishment. She couldn’t believe that incredibly bold and stupid move on her and the First Lady’s part. 

“I know it sounds horrible, Josh.” CJ defended. “Believe me, I felt horrible just thinking about doing it. But if you could have seen her, trust me, I feel pretty confident we would have had your support on that. When she spoke, she didn’t even sound like herself. And it wasn’t like she sounded tired or anything like that; she sounded empty, and like...dead.” 

Josh sat there for a minute and absorbed what CJ had told him. “All right.” he sighed standing up and crossing to the door. “Thanks, CJ. Sorry I bummed you out there.” 

“It’s okay.” CJ nodded. “I’m always here if you want to talk about that.” She paused before continuing. “We all lost a bit of ourselves that day, Josh. But, Donna...Donna was something else entirely.” 

******* 

Josh’s next stop was the press corps bullpen. He saw Katie talking to Steve and Kris near the cubicle she normally occupied while at the White House. The reporters in the bullpen immediately perked up a bit when the Deputy Chief of Staff entered the room. 

“Hey, Katie.” Josh greeted walking up to her. 

“Good morning, Josh.” Katie smiled knowingly. 

“I hear you have something I’m interested in.” Josh said. “Could you email me a copy of the picture, please. Donna and my mother will probably want it.” 

“Okay.” Katie agreed as Josh wrote down his White House email address for her. “I have to say, Josh, I never would have pegged you for a romantic.” 

“That would be because I’m not.” he laughed. 

“Throwing snowballs at her window?” Katie smiled. “Made my heart flutter.” 

“Oh, God.” Josh groaned. “Is that what you’re going to write?” 

“I haven’t decided yet.” she teased. “I’m thinking a sidebar on our website, not a full page spread or anything, possibly with the picture. It is what I’m going to tell all my girlfriends though.” 

“CJ says she doesn’t comment on the personal lives of staffers.” Kris coaxed. 

“I’m certainly not commenting on my personal life.” Josh laughed. “Last time I took you guys on I had to come up with a secret plan to fight inflation.” Josh paused for a minute and considered what Katie had just said. “You know, on second thought, Katie, go talk to CJ about that sidebar.” 

“Really?” she asked hesitantly. The press corps as a whole may take Josh out for a walk in a briefing, but Katie wasn’t stupid enough to piss off the Deputy Chief of Staff all on her own. She didn’t know Josh or the rest of the senior staff near as well as Danny did, and so, she felt there were still quite a few boundaries imposed, especially when it came to Josh and Donna. She remembered a few years back a new reporter for the New York Times had asked Donna out on a date, within a week, he had been transferred back to New York and to the obit department, replaced with a seasoned female reporter. 

“Yeah.” Josh assured nodding. “See what she says about that. That might be the perfect way of handling it.” 

“All right. But, if I end up working in the classified section, I’m going to write freelance about the heart fluttering.” Katie threatened. Josh laughed and walked away, leaving a still skeptical Katie behind. 

TBC


	5. New Beginnings

“So, Leo has a plan.” Josh announced softly sitting down next to Donna in their usual seats on Air Force One. They were headed out to California for various events and to help Sam a bit in the California 47th race. Josh was speaking softly because Amy was just across the cabin. She was flying out with them to stay behind and help Sam a bit on his campaign. At the moment though, she was eyeing them with a great deal of contempt. 

“What’s SHE doing here?” Donna hissed softly to Josh, glaring over at the other woman. 

“Put your claws away, kitten,” Josh quipped. “She’s not making the return trip with us. She’s going to be helping Sam.” 

“Yeah, right.” Donna scoffed falling back against her seat. “Right over a cliff, she’ll help him.” 

“Baby, I was talking about Leo’s plan.” Josh reminded. 

“Plan for what?” 

“Plan for you.” 

“Me?” Donna asked raising her eyebrows. “Plan for me for what?” 

“Your job.” 

“My -” began Donna, then cut herself off. “Joshua, you said my job wouldn’t be in jeopardy. You told me that I could still work for you.” 

“Do you want to hear this or not?” he demanded. Donna glanced across the cabin to see the triumphant smirk on Amy’s face. Obviously, Amy could tell there was a bit of a squabble happening. 

“Not if it ends with I won’t be working in operations anymore.” Donna said lowering her voice even more. 

“You’re getting a promotion.” Donna raised her eyebrows in interest, so he continued. “Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff.” 

“What?” Donna squeaked. 

“You’ll be assigned to take low level meetings on legislation, as well as spearheading some of the smaller ones, then you’ll be moving into the bigger things. Me, Ed and Larry will be mentoring you, we’ll eventually be shifting the bulk of the domestic policy agenda to you three. For reasons passing my understanding, I’ll be taking on more foreign policy work.” 

“Foreign policy?” Donna asked and Josh nodded in response. “You? The one who refers to Italy as the country that looks like a boot?” 

“Are you and Leo ever going to let me live that down?” Josh sighed. 

“Do you even know where Italy is, Josh?” 

“Yeah, it’s on the other side somewhere.” Josh replied. 

“Okay. That Fullbright thing, you made that up, right?” 

“Baby, if it doesn’t have electoral votes, why do I care about where it is? Up until this morning, that wasn’t my job.” 

“It was your job as a resident of the planet Earth.” 

“Can we get back to the issue at hand, please?” Donna dropped back against her seat and looked out the window, letting out an involuntary sigh. “What’s the matter?” 

“I don’t want a promotion I didn’t earn just so it doesn’t look like you’re screwing your assistant.” She said softly. Josh sat there in a stunned silence for a minute while he took in what she just said. How could she believe something like that? 

“Donnatella.” he snapped. He hadn’t meant for it to sound so harsh, but he was angry with her. “So you know, I first brought this up to Leo months ago. I’ve been setting you up for this since last summer.” 

“Really?” she asked turning to him. 

“This was coming to you whether anything happened between us or not.” Josh assured softly. Donna gifted him with a slow smile and he felt an ache in his chest. He loved that she could make him feel like this; he loved when he knew that he had come through for her. She leaned in and kissed him softly. He deepened the kiss and brought his hand up to her face. The moment was broken by a frustrated groan and Amy stomping out of the cabin. 

“Quick lock the door before she comes back.” Donna urged him. 

“My kitten’s back.” Josh chuckled softly. 

“You know, it’s not just that she’s your ex-girlfriend; it’s that she’s mean and your ex-girlfriend. Mandy was never mean to me.” Donna reminded. 

“Well, that’s a feat for her. Mandy was mean to everyone.” Josh replied. 

“No, just you.” Donna said shaking her head. “I think Amy loved you.” 

“No, I’m pretty sure she didn’t.” 

“She’s a woman scorned, Josh.” Donna continued. “I think she loved you, and I think she thought that you loved her, too. That’s why she’s acting like this, she wanted to convince herself that you thought of her as the one that got away.” 

“First off, there was never anyone that ‘got away.’ There’s no one in my past that I’m sorry it didn’t work out with.” Josh began. “Secondly, the only females I have ever said I love you to are my sister, my mother, and you. That’s it. And there certainly hasn’t been any woman that I ever thought that I was in love with. Another distinction that you alone hold in my life. Amy doomed the relationship from the start. She brought politics into it and couldn’t get over it. She was looking for leverage in the political arena, and I’m incredibly ashamed to say that she got it.” 

“You’re cute when you’re worked up.” Donna smiled. She kissed him on his cheek, then dropped her head to his shoulder, as he powered up his laptop. 

“Don’t go to sleep.” he ordered. “We got work to do. I have to gear up on immigration.” 

“There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” Donna replied. 

“You want me to quote Theodore Roosevelt?” Josh asked incredulously. 

“He had a point.” Donna shrugged. 

“Except you can’t say things now the way he said them in 1907.” Josh reminded. “This is why I say you’re soft on republicans; that and you vote for them.” 

“I didn’t mean to vote for him! How long are you going to stay on me for that?” 

“That you worked for President Bartlet and voted for the other guy? For the rest of my life, baby.” Donna was going to continue that argument with him, but chose not do. He was being incredibly revealing to her this trip, whether he intended to or not. She settled her head back down on his shoulder and snaked her arm across his stomach. She lazily began to run her hand up and down in a soft caress and Josh wondered if she knew her hand was currently gliding up and down the exact spot of the entry wound from the bullet. Somehow, he thought so. The gesture wasn’t meant to be seductive, but rather soothing. 

“Okay, fine.” he said softly planting a kiss on the top of her head. “You can take a nap.” 

TBC


	6. New Beginnings

“You got a fax from Amy.” 

“What did she say?” 

“Looks like it's just some campaign updates.” 

“Read it to me.” 

"Low dollar program capped at 37 K ... three new national endorsements, including Sierra, Club and NARAL ... ladder on promise of opposition to partial birth ban... Mrs. B says you're encouraging her to hire a new Chief of Staff ... Need Treasury breakdown of cap gains cut ... First Lady took your advice--she just hired me. Weather here is 74 degrees and partly cloudy." Donna paused for a minute. “Well. A whole new chapter begins.” 

“Yeah.” He looked over to Donna cautiously. He saw her fighting to keep her composure. She had her fake smile plastered on her face. They were in the bullpen, so he knew that she’d remain   
professional. She handed him the fax, then slowly turned around and walked away. Josh saw her walk right past her desk and out to the bullpen, just as CJ walked up. 

“What’s going on?” CJ asked. Wordlessly, Josh handed her the fax. “Mrs. Bartlet hired Amy as her new Chief of Staff?” 

“Uh-huh.” Josh replied. 

“And Donna didn’t take that well?” CJ surmised by what she just witnessed. 

“I’d say that was an accurate guess.” Josh said. 

“All right.” Said CJ as they started to walk away. “We have Leo now. So, you can’t fix it until later.” 

“There’s nothing to fix.” Josh replied walking down the hall with CJ toward’s Leo’s office. “Dr. Bartlet hired my ex-girlfriend to work in the White House. What do you suggest I do about that?”   
“You’re going to have to talk to Donna about it.” CJ said. 

“Yeah, because I didn’t think it was going to be an issue by the way she just walked away from me.” Josh said sarcastically. “You don’t think I know that, CJ? This relationship’s two weeks old and my ex-girlfriend, who has made no bones in the past about her disapproval of Donna, was just hired to work in the White House in a position that I tend to have to work closely with. I’m well aware of the disaster that Dr. Bartlet just dropped at my feet.” 

******************* 

Donna sat in Josh’s chair looking out the window. She saw him in the reflection walk in and close the door. She turned the chair around to look at him, willing the irrational tears to stay behind her eyes. 

“Kind of feels like I’m in trouble here, Donnatella, for something that’s out of my control.” Josh began. 

“No.” she said quietly dropping her gaze to her linked hands. “I don’t know why I got so upset by it.” He walked over and leaned against the desk in front of her. 

“Donna,” he said softly. “I didn’t brave the wrath of Leo, the President, the press, our friends and everyone else to have Amy come between us; you know that, right?” 

“Yes.” she said softly. He leaned over and pulled her up to stand in front of him. “If she gives you a hard time, I want you to tell me.” 

“Yeah.” she said softly, still keeping her gaze down. 

“Look at the seriousness of my face right now.” Josh ordered. Donna raised her eyes and studied his face. It was the face he got when he was about to smack down errant members of Congress. It was his don’t-screw around-with-me-face. “One word that upsets you, and I’ll see to it that she gets her walking papers.” 

“You can’t fire the First Lady’s chief of staff.” 

“No, but the President can.” Josh assured. “And I can and will certainly make her employment here incredibly difficult, and if she comes within five feet of you, I will.” 

“You don’t think I can hold my own against Amy?” Donna pouted looking up at him. 

“You can take her.” Josh assured smiling at the utter adorableness of her face right now. “I just don’t want you to have to do it.” He pulled her to a standing position, and into his arms. “Katie’s article seemed to have gone over well.” Josh noted softly. 

“Because she added the romance.” Donna smiled, content to listen to his heart beat steadily in his chest. 

“I’ll be ruined on the hill.” Josh groaned. 

“Just bring your snowballs, baby, you can waste them all.” 

He chuckled softly against her hair and held her tighter. The relationship was new and old all at the same time. After his admission on the flight to California, he admittedly was surprised about her insecurity over Amy. She had to know that she was head shoulders above anyone he’d dated before. She had always been the woman he compared all other women to. Maybe that wasn’t fair to his past girlfriends, but that’s just how it was. Amy was certainly going to be an aggressive chief of staff over in the East Wing, and since Donna was going to be taken on more responsibilities with domestic policy, they’d often have to work together, which he imagined was going to make things extremely tense. But he also thought Donna was up to the challenge. 

Donna, for her part, dreaded this new shake up in the First Lady’s staff. She supposed it was professionally a smart move on the First Lady’s part to bring in someone as aggressive as Amy, but Amy was also tunnel visioned. Donna did think that Amy loved Josh. Whether or not Amy cared to admit it, or how hard she had tried not to, Donna recognized “that look” on her face. It was the same look Donna had tried to hide so often herself. 

She giggled softly and pulled back to look up at the man who unknowingly left broken hearts in his wake. “What’s so funny?” he asked softly. 

“Nothing.” she shrugged. “You really never cease to amaze me, Joshua.” 

TBC


	7. New Beginnings

As soon as they were cleared to move around the building, Donna headed straight for the Roosevelt room. Shots were fired at the press room and the building was in lockdown, but the West Wing occupants were free to move around the building now. Donna had been down in the mess at the time grabbing them dinner, but Josh was in the Roosevelt Room interviewing a lawyer for the White House counsel’s office. He’d seemed off since yesterday afternoon. When pressed, he wouldn’t talk about it, and she’d been awake most of the night trying to think of what could be bothering him. After this, he must be down right unnerved. 

She poked her head into the room and politely excused him from the interview. He seemed to be holding up all right. 

“Where were you?” she demanded. 

“I was in here.” 

“You want anything?” 

“No.” 

“You know, I'm going to get you some water or something.” 

“I'm all right. I was in here. I didn't even see it.” he assured. 

“But you’ve been freaked out or something since yesterday.” she said. 

“Not about this.” he replied. He looked into her face and almost spilled his guts right there in the hallway, but successfully quelled the urge. He knew he was making it into a bigger deal than it was, but he just couldn’t stop obsessing over it. Every time he looked at her, he saw a blinding, painful white light. He saw her lying there bleeding and dying and him helpless to stop it. 

“You sure?” she demanded again. 

“I swear to God, I didn’t see it or hear it.” he promised. 

“Okay.” she said. “I’ll be in your office.” She turned to walk away and he turned to walk back into the room. “Josh.” she said stopping him. When he turned around, she flung herself at him and his arms encircled her. It was an extremely rare display of affection in the middle of the White House, but her emotions were coursing through her and she didn’t think she’d be able to stop shaking until she got her hands on him. She pulled away from him and hurried down the hall and he suspected that she was going to hide in his office and cry. He sighed and turned back into the room. 

“I'm sorry--what were we talking about?” Josh asked returning to the table. 

“You don't have any information about the suspect.” Joe Quincy replied, picking up the conversation. 

“Right. I got a letter today, and it said, "You're a lying liar. You lie almost as well as Bartlet." You know--black, white, rich, poor, North, South, odd, even ... I don't think there can be anything anymore that outpaces the hatred the right feels for the left, or the tonnage of disrespect the left feels for the right. Donna got a letter yesterday that said, "I'm collecting all the guns you've banned, and there's a bullet with your name on it in each one ... Donna." This guy's decided to focus his wrath on Donna. He's never met Donna or spoken to her, and he's never met anyone who's met Donna or spoken to her ... how's it possible? How's it possible that he hates her so much? How can you not like Donna? She's from Wisconsin.” Josh paused for a minute, lost in thought. “I haven’t told her about it yet. I keep getting on the verge of telling her, but I just can’t seem to open my mouth and tell her.” 

“Isn’t that the type of thing she ought to know?” Joe asked. 

“No.” Josh replied. “It’s not a credible threat, nothing will come of it. But she knows something’s been bugging me.” 

“She’s a very perceptive assistant.” 

“She’s a very perceptive girlfriend.” Josh countered. 

“Ah.” Joe said. “Now I see where this is going. I thought that was a strange display of affection for an assistant to show her boss.” 

“Well, she’s not going to be my assistant much longer.” Josh supplied. “She’s moving up. Anyway...let’s get back to the interview.” 

******************************** 

Josh laid with his head in Donna’s lap on the couch of his apartment that evening, relishing in the feeling of her fingers coursing gently through his hair. She’d been hovering over him all evening, not quite convinced that he was fine. 

“Why won’t you tell me what’s bothering you?” she asked. “Is it something that you can’t tell me?” 

“No.” he said with a sigh. 

“Then tell me. Whatever it is, I can handle it. I can’t help you, if I don’t know what I’m up against here.” He rolled onto his back with his head still in her lap and rubbed his eyes. 

“You got a death threat yesterday.” 

“A credible one?” she asked quietly. 

“No.” 

“What did it say?” she asked. 

“Doesn’t matter.” 

“Looks like it matters to you a lot,” she countered. “so tell me what it says, Joshua. Besides, it’s my death threat, I think it’s only fair I know.” 

“It said I’m collecting all the guns you’ve banned and there’s a bullet in each one with your name on it; then it spelled out your name.” he said closing his eyes tightly. 

“And you’re upset because it spelled my name wrong?” 

“Donna!” He snapped his eyes opened and looked up at her. 

“Josh, it’s a non credible threat!” she laughed. “It’s not my first one, I’m sure. You know better this.” 

“I just don’t want you to go through the pain I did.” he said softly. She leaned down and placed a soft kiss on his forehead. 

“I know.” she said. “But you also know that there’s nothing you can do about it. Non credible threats are just that. You can’t let it eat you up.” 

“Well, that’s not likely to happen.” 

“So, you hired Joe.” Donna said shifting the conversation. 

“Yes, I hired your hottie.” Josh smiled. 

“I told you, *I* don’t think he’s handsome; others will think he’s handsome.” 

“I don’t know, baby, a hot Republican working in the White House, how ever will you restrain yourself?” 

“I guess my hottie Democrat boyfriend will just have to think of something to distract me with.” 

“Don’t challenge me, baby, I’ll keep you constantly distracted if I have to. The first time I see you coming up from the Steam Trunk Distribution Venue, you can admire him from over at OEOB.” 

TBC


	8. New Beginnings

“DONNA!” Donna rolled her eyes and waited. She hadn’t been at her old desk in a week, and he still bellowed for her. She was still in the bullpen, but a few desks further back with Ed and Larry, they shared a pretty large cubicle in the back. 

“How long do you think it’s going to take him to stop yelling for you?” Ed asked her. 

Donna smiled and picked up her phone and buzzed his extension, looking over at his door. 

“Why aren’t you in here yet?” he asked into the speaker phone. 

“Stop yelling for me across the bullpen, Joshua.” she ordered. “People are out here trying to work and you’re annoying – I mean distracting them.” 

“We’re moving your desk back.” 

“No, that desk is for your assistant. I’m 15 feet further away.” 

“That’s 15 feet too far.” 

“Well, you’re either going to have to learn to use the intercom or quietly walk back here.” Donna said smiling. “What do you need? I’m not done with the thing yet.” 

“Why not?” 

“Because you keep yelling for me.” 

“Well, I don’t need it yet anyway. Come in here.” 

“Excuse you?” 

“Baby, can you please come into my office?” Josh asked softening the tone of his voice. 

“That’s better. Yes.” Donna hung up the phone and turned to Ed and Larry. “I’ll be back. Again.” 

“Take your time.” said Larry. “Seriously. The longer you keep him busy, the longer we got on this.” 

“But I’m supposed to be working on it, too.” 

“No, no.” explained Ed. “This is something else.” 

Donna rolled her eyes and walked through the bullpen towards Josh’s office. She’d found in the week she’d been working with Ed and Larry that they were a bit of procrastinators. She wondered if that was part of the reason Leo was moving her over to them. She walked through Josh’s door and closed the door behind her, crossing her arms across her chest she looked expectantly at him, while waiting for him to look up at her. 

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.” he said. 

“If you keep bellowing, for anyone, I’m going to start withholding sex.” she threatened. 

“What?” 

“You heard me.” 

“That’s ridiculous.” he replied. “Besides, you’ll only be making yourself suffer.” 

“I’ll manage. You’re not as addicting as you think.” she shrugged. He arched a brow at her and stared at her, calling her bluff She stared back for a moment before cracking. “Dammit! Fine. I won’t withhold sex. Why do you have to be so good at it anyway?” He laughed in response and she flopped down into one of the visitor’s chairs in defeat. “What did you need anyway?” 

“The President’s having a thing tonight in the Residence. Chili and music. It’s casual; we can get changed if you want. We’ve been requested to attend.” he informed. 

“Music?” she asked, her interest peaked. “Who?” 

“I don’t know.” she shrugged. “But it’s starting in a little while and he asked that we try and be the first ones there.” 

“Why?” 

“I have no idea. You done out there?” 

“You’re the boss.” 

“You’re done out there. Let’s go up.” She grabbed her bag with her change of casual clothes in it that they kept stashed in his office and hurried down to the ladies room to get changed. When she returned, Josh was already changed into jeans and her favorite brown sweater. 

He walked out from behind the desk as she stood right in front of him. He linked hands with her and moved towards the door. She was surprised that he was intending to walk out to the bullpen like this, since they generally were really good about keeping the professionalism in the White House, but she’d decided not to argue. They weren’t walking to a meeting, they were walking to the Residence after hours. They quietly moved through the building, and past the secret service agents up to the Residence. The President and First Lady were in the sitting room, and as requested, Josh and Donna were the first ones there. 

“Good evening, sir.” Josh greeted. 

“Ah, just in time.” the President said as Leo entered the room, as well. “I wanted to talk to you before everyone else got here.” 

“Is there something wrong, sir?” Josh asked cautiously. 

“No.” the President smiled. “I just wanted to talk to you about tonight’s music.” Donna and Josh glanced at each other confused. It was then that Donna caught sight of a black baby grand piano in the corner that she couldn’t recall ever being there before. 

“Well, I have been given this beautiful baby grand piano as a gift from the Queen,” the President said gesturing to the piano behind them. 

“It’s very beautiful.” Josh nodded. 

“Well, I thought we could break it in tonight.” the President continued. 

“Okay.” Josh looked over at Donna to see if she was following the conversation and she looked just as lost as he did. Neither of them could figure out the direction the conversation was going. 

“Leo here tells me that you could have been a piano prodigy.” the President blurted. Josh turned in astonishment to Leo, but the President and First Lady noticed that a small smile appeared on Donna’s face. 

“You told them what?” Josh asked his mentor. 

“I heard you play once at your parents’ house for a thing. You were amazing. You played for your parents.” Leo said. 

“I’ve only ever played at the request of my parents.” Josh said quietly. 

“But will you play at the request of the President?” the President smiled. 

“Of course, sir.” Josh grudgingly agreed. 

“Good! Don’t get stage fright, Josh. It’s only CJ, Toby, Charlie and Will that will be joining us tonight.” the President assured. “I believe the bench is full of sheet music, if you need it.” 

With a groan only Donna could hear, Josh and she wandered over to the piano and Josh opened up the bench to pulled out the plethora of classical and modern piano sheet music and piled it on the corner of the piano, pausing for a minute to run his hand lightly along the top of the piano. Looking back over at Donna, he saw her smiling at him. 

“Yes, I can play the piano.” he confessed reluctantly. 

“I know.” she nodded. “I’ve been waiting for the day I was going to get to hear it.” 

“Is there nothing my mother doesn’t tell you?” Josh laughed. He adjusted the bench to his height and sat down, patting the bench next to him for her to sit down next to him. At that moment, CJ, Toby and Will entered the sitting room, eyeing Josh at the piano suspiciously. They obviously had been just as in the dark as Josh and Donna had been. 

“Don’t try hiding from us behind the piano, Josh,” CJ quipped. “I’ll ferret you out anywhere.” 

“Actually, Claudia Jean,” Josh replied. “It would appear that I’m your entertainment tonight.” 

“You?” she asked, her jaw dropping. 

“I’ve been outed by Judas.” Josh said sending a glare in Leo’s direction, who didn’t look the slightest bit sorry or intimidated. 

“You play the piano, mi amore?” CJ asked stunned. 

“Occasionally.” 

“Will you be giving us Heart and Soul and Chopsticks, or do you actually got game?” 

“You’re auditioning me to be tonight’s entertainment?” Josh responded to the challenge. 

“I just don’t want to be listening to The Entertainer and London Bridge is Falling Down all night.” she smirked. 

Without another word, or breaking his fighting gaze from CJ, Josh launched flawlessly into Pachelbel’s Canon in D. Everyone but Leo gaped at him in amazement. Never had they imagined that Josh hid a talent like this. His fingers moved gracefully along the keys and it sounded exactly like it would coming out of a CD, but somehow, more beautiful. After a minute or two of the piece, he stopped abruptly and looked at CJ. 

“Do I pass muster?” he laughed. 

“Oh, mi amore.” CJ breathed. “If it wasn’t for your girlfriend, I’d vault over this piano right now and kiss you stupid. 

“I used to play the oboe in high school.” Will volunteered raising his hand. 

“Shut up, fly boy.” CJ ordered. “I never would have pegged you for being able to do something like that, Josh.” 

“A son will do pretty much anything for his grieving parents, CJ.” Josh explained softly, giving them a rare glimpse into this childhood. “I’d only just started when my sister died, and they found it comforting. I never played in a recital or outside my parents’ house.” 

“How do you keep it up like that?” Will asked. “You don’t have a piano at your place, do you?” 

“My mother makes me play every Thanksgiving when I go home. That’s the only time I ever do.” 

“That’s why you hate going to Wilson’s so much.” Toby noted. “You never like to go there because you always say the piano guy only knows one song.” 

“There’s only so many times you can listen to Surrey With the Fringe on Top in your lifetime.” Josh replied. “A piece, by the way, you won’t be hearing tonight.” 

************************ 

“Are you still awake?” Donna asked softly that night as they lay in bed. She was laying with her head on Josh’s chest and lightly tracing circles on him. 

“Mmm-hmm.” 

“I just wanted to tell you that you were really good tonight.” she said. “I know you didn’t want to play, but you were amazing. Everyone was really impressed. I thought ending with the Ave Maria was beautiful.” 

“It was my sister’s favorite.” he confessed. “She used to play it over and over.” 

“You played it flawlessly. I hope I don’t have to wait six years to hear you play again.” 

“Come home with me on Thanksgiving and you can hear me again.” 

Donna propped herself up on her elbow and stared down at him. “Seriously?” 

“Yeah.” he nodded. 

“November is eight months away.” 

“Yeah.” 

“You want to make plans for eight months from now?” 

“Well, I think by then my mom will be chewing her arm off to get me to bring you down there.” Josh responded. Josh rolled his eyes as he saw tears form in Donna’s eyes. “Baby, did you think I was going to tell you that I loved you and then dump you?” 

“No.” she said. “But it’s just that’s future plans, and I don’t know...” 

“Did you not think you were in my future plans?” he asked. He honestly looked confused and Donna smiled at that. He was so cute that way. He would just assume things and forget to mention them to her. 

“I guess I didn’t think about how far in the future you’d be thinking.” she admitted. 

“Far.” he assured. 

“How far?” she smiled and he shrugged in response. 

He wanted to tell her far enough that they were married for many, many years, with many, many kids, and many, many grandkids, but he was sure she’d start bawling over that, and quite frankly, he was tired. He didn’t want to map out their life tonight. Instead he replied, “Do you trust me?” 

“What?” 

“Do you trust me?” 

“What the hell kind of question is that?” she demanded. “Of course I trust you.” 

“Then trust me now.” 

“I trust you always.” 

TBC


	9. New Beginnings

“Donna!” Josh bellowed stepping out of his office, looking down at a piece of paper. Donna sighed back at her desk. She opened up the top drawer of her desk, pulled out a brightly colored Koosh ball, turned toward him and lobbed it the 15 feet at him. It hit him square in the chest. He caught it and looked up at her. He took the Koosh and tossed it back to her, unphased by it. “What the hell is this?” he asked holding up the piece of paper and walking towards her. 

“It a vacation request. You have to sign off on it.” 

“It’s a vacation request for you.” he noted. 

“Nothing gets by you.” she quipped. 

“I would like to discuss this with you in my office.” he said. She arched a brow at him, but walked by him and into his office. When he crossed the threshold, he pushed the door shut. “Talk.” he ordered dropping into his chair. 

“It’s a vacation request.” she said. “You have to sign off on it.” 

“You weren’t going to, I don’t know, discuss it with me?” 

“I have to go see my parents. I haven’t seen them in almost a year.” she replied. “I’ve tried to bring this up to you a couple of times and something else has always came up.” 

“What am I going to do without you for an entire...” he looked down at the request “...ten days!” 

She cocked her head to the side and smiled at him. “There’s duplicate request for you on my desk. I didn’t want to be so bold as to put it in to Leo without actually talking to you about it.” 

He paused and his gaze softened. “You want me to come to Wisconsin with you?” he smiled. 

“Of course I want you to come to Wisconsin with me.” she replied. “Don’t you think it’s time you met my parents?” 

“I’ve met your parents.” 

“Not as the man I love.” she smiled. 

He couldn’t help it. He tried to still be annoyed with her, but when she said things like that, and looked at him like she was, it was impossible. She walked over to him and draped herself across his lap, kissing along his neck. 

“That’s quite a sales pitch you’ve got going there, Donna.” he said tipping his head back, so she could be more thorough. 

“So I can bring your vacation request to Leo?” she said huskily. 

“Um, baby? It’s like impossible for me to go ten days without this.” he replied. “I might stop breathing; I’ll definitely be cranky; I doubt I’ll sleep...” 

“I’ll walk it over as soon as we’re finished here.” She pulled his earlobe into her mouth and he groaned loudly. “You might want to watch the volume of your voice right now, Joshua.” 

“Don’t say my name like that.” he said quickly. 

“Why not?” 

“Because you say my name like that, and all I want to do is rip your clothes off you and kiss every inch of your body, and I’ve got a meeting in...um...I don’t know, I forget, but soon...and then there’s what’s-his-name, that I’m supposed to talk to about...um...something...” 

“Joshua, am I distracting you?” she asked innocently. 

“Yes.” he nodded. “I would have to say, definitely, yes to the distraction.” 

“All right.” she said sitting up and plucking the piece of paper from his hand and handing him a pen. “Sign it.” He signed his name and looked back up at her. “I’ll just go bring these to Leo.” She pecked him on the forehead and stood up. But he was not to be outdone. 

“Donna?” he called softly, pushing himself quickly out of his chair. 

“What do you need?” she asked automatically, turning to face him again. 

He turned her quickly and backed her up against the bookcase, then kissed her breathless. “You’re not the only one that can bring the office seduction.” he whispered. 

“Hmmm?” 

“You were going to bring those to Leo.” he reminded. 

“Hmm?” 

“The vacation requests.” 

“Right!” she said. “Yes. Vacation. Vacation in Wisconsin. Leo. Kissing.” 

“Kissing Leo?” 

“No! Kissing Josh. Wisconsin.” 

“Kissing Josh in Wisconsin?” 

“Hmm?” 

He smiled at her and opened the office door watching her walk out and regroup on her way back to her desk. 

 

“Are your parents pissed at me?” 

“Why would my parents be pissed at you?” 

“I don’t know; I’m your boss.” 

“Why would that make them mad at you?” 

“I don’t know. I’m defiling their little girl.” 

“Defiling?” 

“I’m serious! When we land, are they going to yell at me?” 

“Josh, you’ve met them before.” 

“But you were right, not as the man you love. I’ve met them as your boss. That’s very different.” 

“They like you, Josh.” 

“They do?” 

“Yes.” 

“You’re sure?” 

“Josh, they know we’re together.” Donna assured. They were sitting in the terminal waiting for their flight to board. “What are you afraid of?” 

“They think I’m sleeping with their daughter.” 

“You are sleeping with their daughter.” 

“You told them that?!” 

“No. But I’m sure they assume.” 

“I’m going to get stink eye from your father the entire trip.” 

“If you’re going to get stink eye from my father, it’s because you’re a democrat.” 

“I’m a democrat AND I’m sleeping with his daughter. I’m a goner.” 

“My mother loves you.” 

“My mother loves you, too.” 

“Which works out well for you, since apparently she’ll be there, too.” 

“My mother is going to be at your parents’ house!?” 

“Yup.” 

“How long have you known this?” 

“Since last night.” 

“You didn’t think to clue me in?” 

“I just did.” 

“Why are our parents even talking?! How do our parents even KNOW each other?” 

“My mother called your mother after the shooting.” 

“Oh. Why?” 

“I guess to see if she needed anything. How the hell do I know? I was a zombie.” 

He sighed dramatically and dropped his head to the back of the seat. 

“Josh?” 

“Yeah, baby.” 

“Do you love me?” 

“Do you see me sitting in an airport terminal ready to board a plane for Wisconsin, where I’m going to ‘meet your parents’ for lack of a better term, and spend the next ten days getting that look from your father that clearly says, I-know-you’re-screwing-my-daughter, where you’ve just sprung the fact that my mother is going to be there as well?” 

“So, that’s a yes?” 

“Yes, baby, that’s a yes.” Josh sighed. 

“Then trust me. You’ll be fine. 

TBC


	10. New Beginnings

“Joshua?” Sylvia Lyman called from the hallway outside Donna’s room. 

“Yeah mom.” 

“Are you up?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Are you dressed?” 

“Of course I’m dressed.” 

“I just wanted to check before I came in.” She pushed the door to the bedroom open and walked in as Josh sat up and rubbed his face. 

“Donna’s downstairs already.” 

“I know.” 

“How are you doing?” 

“I’m tired. I’m not used to sleeping this late.” 

“It’s eight o’clock.” 

“By eight o’clock, I’m in senior staff getting yelled at by Leo and having it out with Toby.” he replied. 

“Well, maybe these ten days will help you adjust to a more normal schedule.” 

“Why the hell would I want to do that?” 

“You don’t think it’s time for you to settle down and work a little less?” 

“Settle down?” 

“Did I say settle down? I meant slow down.” 

“Of course you did. And isn’t it the same thing?” 

“Are you mad that I’m here?” 

“Of course not, mom. I’m happy to see you. I was going to bring Donna down for Thanksgiving. I just didn’t know you and the Mosses knew each other.” 

“For years now, Joshua.” 

“So I’ve been told.” 

“You know, I noticed something about you last night.” his mother said. 

“What’s that?” 

“How can someone that works as much as you, in a job as stressful as yours, who operates on the minimal amount of sleep allowed by nature, look so happy?” 

Josh smiled and leaned up against the wall on the bed. “Mother.” 

“Yes, dear?” 

“Don’t beat around the bush. Dad taught you better than that.” 

“Donna makes you very happy.” 

“Donna’s always made me very happy.” 

“Having Donna in your life this way makes you very happy.” 

“Yes, it does.” 

“You should marry her is all I’m saying.” 

“I plan on it.” 

Josh smiled at his mother’s stunned expression. She was obviously expecting him to put up a fight. 

“Does she know this?” 

“I haven’t asked her, but I’m sure she does.” 

“How can you be so sure if you haven’t asked her?” 

“Because she’s Donna and I know her.” 

“It’s just...you’re keeping this big old empty house in Connecticut. What if there’s never anyone to fill it?” 

“There will be plenty of people to fill it, mom.” 

“Plenty like how many?” 

“Plenty like maybe you could let me talk to Donna about in the natural course of, you know, being in a relationship with her, and give me a little space here!” 

“Okay. Don’t be cranky.” 

“I’m not cranky.” 

“That was cranky, Joshua.” 

“Well, I haven’t had my coffee yet. I’m only half a human being at the moment.” 

“Does she know about the house?” 

“Not yet.” 

“Joshua.” 

“YOU told her you sold the house. She didn’t ask me to whom, and --” 

“Joshua.” 

“I was with Amy at the time, mom. It would have been this whole thing.” he said quietly. 

“Does she know how much money you have coming to you when I’m gone?” 

“She’ll figure it out when she sees the house in Connecticut, don’t you think?” 

“Joshua.” Sylvia sighed again. “These are important things --” 

“Mom! Donna’s been...we’ve only been together for a couple of months. You have NO idea what kind of an adjustment this has been for us, for the office...for others. An article ran about us in the Washington Post. Can we just, you know, NOT dive right into everything? Can I just take my time for once and not screw it up? She’s the only woman I’ve ever loved. Just cut me some slack.” 

“Okay, Joshua.” Sylvia nodded opening the door. “Come down for breakfast.” His mother disappeared through the door and he heard her speaking to someone, who was quickly revealed to be Donna. Josh smiled as she came in smiling at him. She pushed the door shut and handed him a cup of coffee. 

“Don’t be such a bear to your mother, baby. She flew here from Florida.” 

“Thanks for the coffee.” he said quietly. 

“What happened? I heard your voice raised.” 

“She’s giving me a hard time.” 

“About us I assume?” 

“Sort of.” 

“What happened?” 

“It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you before,” Josh began. “I just never did, and then I just didn’t think about it.” 

“Tell me what?” 

“My parents’ house in Connecticut...” 

“You own it.” 

“Yes.” 

“I know.” 

“So it seems.” 

“I’ve known since you closed.” 

“How?” 

“I was your assistant, you idiot.” 

“You didn’t do a lick of work on that closing.” 

“No, but I took your phone calls.” she reminded him. 

“Damn.” 

“Yes.” 

“So you know then?” 

“I know.” 

“It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you --” 

“Josh, you were with Amy then.” Donna reminded. “And she was always mad at you for something, and it was usually having to do with me, and it probably would have caused more trouble than it was worth.” 

“Well, no. I don’t think I would ever categorize any moment spent with you about anything as being more trouble than it was worth, but if we could never speak of that dark period in my dating history again, that would be good, too.” He said smiling at her. 

She just couldn’t resist him. She leaned in and kissed him. She didn’t care about his morning breath mixed with coffee. He was all mussed up from sleeping, and he was saying these sweet things. He blindly set the coffee mug down on the window ledge next to the bed and eased her back down onto the bed. She got him going every time. All she had to do was smile at him and he was mush. 

“Will you take me to see it?” she asked. 

“Sure.” 

“When?” 

“I don’t know. When do you want to go?” 

“Can we cut this trip a few days short and go?” 

“Yes.” 

“Really?” 

“Donna, stop talking now.” 

“Kay.” 

“Still talking.” 

“Sorry.” 

“Not helping the cause there.” 

TBC


	11. New Beginnings

Josh entered the kitchen with his now cold coffee to find his mother and Donna’s mother at the table with steaming mugs of coffee. 

“Where’d Donna go?” his mother asked. 

“Shower.” he said filling his mug with fresh coffee. “And it looks like our time with you will be cut short.” 

“Did you get called back to the White House, Josh?” Lynn Moss asked. 

“No.” Josh said adding cream to his mug. “It seems we’re going to Connecticut.” 

“Well, that was fast.”Sylvia noted. 

“Yes.” 

“Did you not want to bring Donna to Connecticut?” 

“I have no problems bringing her anywhere. If she wants me to bring her to hell, I would.” 

“She’ll love that house, Joshua.” Sylvia said confidently. 

“Which works out well, since it’s going to be her’s someday.” 

“Something you want to share, Josh?”Lynn prodded. 

“With you two? What am I, nuts?” 

“That was a very cryptic comment.” 

“It was not.” 

“Don’t be snarky, Joshua.” his mother chided. 

“It was a perfectly legitimate question, Josh, after what you said to your mother upstairs.” Lynn replied. 

“You told her!” Josh accused his mother. 

“Oh Joshua, calm down.” Sylvia sighed. “We talk; sue us. We’ve been waiting for you two to come around for two years now. That was a big thing.” 

“You’re ganging up on me.” Josh accused. 

“What are you two doing today?” Lynn asked quickly changing the subject, much like her daughter was frequently prone to do. 

“We’re going to the county fair.” Josh grumbled, then shot his mother a glare as she nearly spit her coffee out. 

“I’m sorry, honey.” Sylvia said. “I thought you said you were going to a county fair.” 

“We are.” 

“My son?” 

“Yes.” 

“A county fair?” 

“Yes.” 

“With farmers and livestock and fried hot dogs on a stick?” 

“Mother.” Josh warned. 

“Seems you really will take Donna to hell.” 

“County fairs are fun.” Josh countered. 

“They absolutely are.” 

“Donna loves this fair.” 

“Don’t go on the ferris wheel. Fair rides are sketchy.” Sylvia warned. “It’s probably put together with an Allen key.” 

“Do you even know what an Allen key is?” 

“Do YOU know what an Allen key is?” she countered. 

“Yes. I’m just surprised you do.” 

“Joshua, you’ll find when you have children, anything you can possibly buy for them, gets put together with an Allen key.” 

“I think I’d rather the Connecticut conversation.” Josh mumbled. 

“We could go back to that one.” Lynn assured. 

“There’s a lot of decisions that need to be made. You two need to back off and give us space.” 

“Take Donna to Connecticut, Joshua,” Sylvia replied as Donna entered the kitchen. “Work on the boat.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What’d your mom mean before?” Donna asked Josh as they walked through the vendors at the fair. 

“You know, that fried hot dog on a stick wasn’t half bad.” 

“Because you like anything fried.” Donna countered. “What’d your mom mean?” 

“When?” 

“When she told you to ‘work on the boat.’” 

“It was a metaphor.” 

“A metaphor for what?” 

“You’ll understand when we get to Connecticut.” he said taking her hand as they walked. 

“Are you mad to be going there?” 

“No. Why would you think that?” 

“You seem annoyed.” 

“Our mothers were giving me a hard time.” 

“They’re meddling.” 

“They are.” 

“They’re happy for us.” 

“They’re TOO happy for us.” 

“They’re planning the future.” Donna concluded, though she wasn’t surprised to hear that they were on him about it, too. That morning they were playing a hundred questions with her, too. 

“They got to you, too.” he smiled dropping her hand and putting his arm around her shoulders. She laughed and wrapped her arms around his waist. 

She was happy that he didn’t seem too freaked out by the mothers bugging them about the future. She was mortified that morning when they’d started in on them. She didn’t know what their plans were, and she was happy with the way things were. This was a big step for them. Taking it slow wasn’t a bad thing. She was confident they were moving forward. Josh wasn’t getting freaked out by the things that normally freaked him out. He seemed annoyed that their mothers were prodding him for information, but not freaked out by it. 

He turned and kissed her forehead as they walked. “I guess having a future plan isn’t such a bad idea.” she hedged. 

“They got to you.” he smiled. 

“No, they didn’t.” 

“They did.” he laughed. “They got to you. They started asking you questions you can’t answer and now you’re freaked out.” 

“How do you know I can’t answer the questions?” she shot back. 

“I guess I don’t.” he said after a pause. 

“You don’t think we should at least see if our answers are the same?” 

“If you think it’s time to see if our answers are the same, sure.” he said. 

“Really?” she asked skeptically. 

“Yup.” He nodded. “But not now. When we get to Connecticut.” 

TBC


	12. New Beginnings

Josh put the car in park in the driveway of the house in Westport. He gave Donna a minute to take in the sight before her. The house wasn’t as large as most in the neighborhood, but the property was expansive and waterfront, which was certainly worth it’s weight in gold in these parts. The weathered shingles and wrap around porch gave it all an “old port” feel. She got out of the car and walked slowly towards the house, and he got out and followed. 

“Josh.” she said softly. 

“It’s pretty spacey inside.” he said. “The kitchen has a wall of windows that looks out onto the water.” 

“Would that body of water happen to be the Atlantic Ocean?” she asked. 

“It’ll eventually lead there, yes.” 

“It’s got a wrap around porch.” Donna noted with a sigh. 

“Yeah, and there’s fans on the ceiling of the porch that catch the breeze off the water.” Josh said. 

She turned and looked at him with a soft smile. 

“What?” he asked with a goofy grin in return. 

“You grew up here.” 

“I did. Well, my parents bought it when I was eight, after...” 

“Yeah.” 

“So, I mostly grew up here.” 

“Are you going to show me all your favorite spots?” 

“Sure.” 

“What’s in that building?” Donna asked pointing towards a smaller structure near the water that matched the shingles of the house. 

Josh smiled and cocked his head to the side. “Go take a look.” he smiled. She walked down and he followed her, unlocking the door. They walked through the door and he flicked on a light. 

“You keep the electric on when you’re not here?” she asked. 

“Nobody’s using the electric Donna, it’s not all that expensive to keep it turned on.” 

She turned to look into the room. It looked like a wood shop and in the middle was an overturned wooden boat, set up on sawhorses. 

“It’s a boat.” Donna said, stating the obvious. 

“It’s a boat.” Josh agreed. 

“I can’t say that I ever knew, even from your mom, that you liked boating.” Donna said. 

“It’s not that I do really.” Josh said. “I mean, I guess when it’s finally done, I’m going to find someone to restore the engine and try it out. But, despite living in Westport, I’m not much of a boater.” 

“What are you doing with it then?” Donna asked. 

“Well, it’s kind of a long story.” Josh said. She ran her hand lightly along the wooden hull and looked over at him, arching a brow. “All right. But don’t make fun of me.” 

“I highly doubt I’ll do that.” 

“You often do.” 

“Not when you get sentimental, I don’t.” 

“What makes you think I’m going to get all sentimental?” 

“Josh, you’ve got a boat when you’re not a boater.” Donna noted. “What other kind of story could it be?” 

“All right, fine.” he conceded. “This was originally a gardener’s shed. But my father never had time for that kind of upkeep, so he hired landscapers, and they come with their own stuff. When my grandparents died, my parents had to liquidate all their stuff. They ended up with all their furniture and stuff. Included in that furniture was this old oak hutch. My mother loved that hutch. But it was stained too dark and didn’t match any other furniture in our house. So, my dad, because he loved my mom too much for his own good, tells her that we’ll sand it down and restain it a lighter color. So we had the hutch brought here, and he and I did it. And it came out really nice, I might add.” 

Donna smiled at the story, and Josh continued. 

“Anyway, we’re down by the marina one day for some fair or something, and there was this old boat there. Nobody wanted it because it needed a lot of work, so the dealer was having a hard time unloading it. My father made this off-hand remark about how he and I should take it home and restore it because we did such a good job with that hutch. My mother immediately points out that though we live in Westport, we’re not boaters. So the dealer comes over and starts talking to us about this boat and what kind it is.” 

“What kind is it?” Donna smiled. 

“It’s a 1959 23 foot- Lyman inboard runabout.” Josh said. 

“There’s actually a boatmaker named Lyman?” Donna laughed. 

“Yes, there is.” 

“So, it was fate then.” 

“Yes.” Josh smiled. “So we bring it back here and my father bought all these books on restoring old boats. When Sam found out about it, he came home with me a few times to work on it, too. We were going to give it to him when we were done, but after a while, he didn’t want it anymore.” Josh paused while he lightly ran his hand along the hull. “So, we started working on it, and my father and I would have these long talks while we were sanding it down and working on it. While we worked on this boat, I told him here that I got into Harvard; I told him I wanted to be a politician and not a lawyer; I told him I was leaving Hoynes’ office after I saw the President speak in Nashua. This is where my father told me he had cancer.” 

“So, that’s why Sam doesn’t want it?” Donna asked. “Because it holds more sentimental value for you?” 

“Sort of.” Josh smiled. “I’m not sure I should tell you this part.” 

“After what you just told me there’s something you’re afraid of telling me? What more could you reveal?” 

“Well,” he said ducking his chin briefly before looking back up at her. “After I saw the President speak in Nashua and came here, Leo stopped by on his way back down to Washington. He came out here with my father and me to help me convince my father that we weren’t crazy. Leo noted that the boat had no name and that was bad luck. Then, Sam had made the same comment a few times. Well, do you remember after the shooting, I came up here for a week, right before I came back to work?” 

Donna nodded and watched, as he seemed to grow a little reluctant to continue the story. 

“Well, I came out here to think because I was considering not going back.” 

“I didn’t know that.” Donna whispered. He’d been so antsy to get back to work that she just naturally assumed that he wasn’t having any kind of second thoughts; he never said he did. 

“Well, nobody did.” he replied. “My mom did though. So anyway,” he sighed. “I came out here to think about it and I tried to think about what my dad would say about that, and while I was out here, I just sort of came up with a name for the boat. When Sam found out what I named it, he didn’t want it anymore.” 

“What did you name it?” she asked. Somehow she’d gotten sucked into this story about how this boat got here. 

“Well, if you look on the bench behind you, Sam had a gold plate made up with the name on it, so we could put it on when it was finally done.” Josh said pointing behind her. 

Donna turned around to the bench and sucked in a breath as she gingerly picked up the gold plate. It read, “Donnatella.” 

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. 

“So, you had some questions about our future then, Donnatella?” 

TBC


	13. New Beginnings

“Good morning.” Donna smiled walking out onto the porch when she found Josh. She had woken up alone and went on a hunt through the house for him. She had finally found him here on the back porch, sitting on the swing and looking out at the water. He held out an arm to her and she curled up next to him, wrapped in a blanket she dragged off the bed with her. 

“Sleep well?” he asked smoothing her hair back and kissing her temple. 

“I always do when I’m with you.” she nodded. 

“There’s coffee in the kitchen.” 

“I’ll make my way there soon.” she said looking out at the water. “It’s so beautiful here, Josh, how did you leave it?” 

“Well, it was my parents’.” he said. “Nagging parents make it pretty easy not to stick around too long.” 

“Josh.” 

“I had stuff to go back to.” he shrugged. 

“Why’d you buy it?” 

“Because some day, I wanted to bring you here.” 

“You’re full of it.” she scoffed. “You were with Amy when you bought this.” 

“I speak the truth.” he insisted. “I never brought Amy here. Come to think of it, I’m not even sure I ever even told her I bought it. I was with Amy because the timing wasn’t right for me and you. But I knew one day it would be.” She eyed him carefully, clearly trying to figure out if he was telling the truth or not. “You saw the name of the boat.” he continued. 

“Okay. Well, I’ll give you that.” she said. “I’m thinking I should have kissed you sooner. You say all these wonderful things to me now.” 

“I kissed you first.” he reminded. 

“You still say wonderful things to me.” 

“It’s easy.” he smiled. 

“You still didn’t answer my question.” 

“Which question?” 

“Why’d you buy the house?” 

“Yes, I did.” 

“Okay. Well then, you’ve now brought me here. Now what are you going to do with it?” 

“What do you think about living in Connecticut?” he asked quietly. Her eyes widened and she tried to hide her surprise. “Do you think you could be happy here?” 

“If you’re here, I’ll be happy here.” she replied. 

It didn’t hurt that she was totally in love with the house. She was in love with everything; the wide-planked hard wood floors; the double pained windows; the enormous fireplace in the living room, with an identical one in the master bedroom; the soft wood molding, the light paint colors; the brick and dark wood kitchen; the rose garden; the rocking chairs on the porch; and the baby grand piano in the living room she was going to beg him to play. His mother had taken a lot of the furniture with her when she moved, but some things were left behind that Josh had wanted. He said that his mother complained about moving a piano all the way to Florida and that she’d just leave that one here. But his first Thanksgiving down there, he saw that she had bought a smaller upright one for her condo. 

He fell silent as he pushed them back and forth on the swing. Donna was content for a little while to enjoy the peacefulness of their surroundings for a while, before a thought crept into her head and began to nag at her. 

“Josh?” 

“Yeah, baby?” 

“When?” 

“Hmm?” 

“When do you want to move here?” 

“I don’t know.” he said softly looking away from her. 

“You don’t think you want to finish the second term?” 

“Sometimes I think I do; sometimes I just want to be somewhere where I can walk in a restaurant and make it to my table without getting stopped six times.” 

“Is there something else at play here?” 

“No.” 

“You’re sure?” 

“You think I’m lying?” he asked as his eyebrows shot up. 

“I think you just said you wanted to quit because it’s hard and MY Josh would never say something like that.” she counted looking at him pointedly in the eye. 

“It has nothing to do with it being hard.” 

“What is it then?” 

“Donna, a guy in my position leaving after one term isn’t unheard of.” Josh replied. “I’ve put my time in, I’ve sacrificed. Maybe it’s just time to move on to other things and explore other options. Like, a life. I’ve given Jed Bartlet and Leo McGarry five years of devotion and loyalty. I’ve put my time in; I’ve sacrificed more than the others. I have no contract that says I have to stay two terms. Sam left; he wasn’t lynched.” 

“Okay.” Donna nodded quickly agreeing with him. If he wanted to go, they’d go; if he wanted to stay; they’d stay. She liked working at the White House, but a big reason for that was because of him. She doubted she’d like it near as much if he wasn’t there. She knew when he was out after the shooting, she didn’t like working there by herself without him. 

“I’m sorry.” he said softly kissing her temple again, and running his hand through her hair. 

“What do you want, Josh?” Donna asked softly. 

“I want to get married, Donna.” he said softly. “I want to get married, and have kids, and not miss bedtime because I’m working late, and not miss soccer games because I got called in to work. I like working, and if I don’t do something, I’ll go insane, but I don’t know that I need to be at the White House anymore, at least, I don’t know that I need to be in the job I am.” 

“What is there at the White House for you, other than what you’re doing?” Donna asked. Her head was reeling a bit from his revelation, but she tried to keep her eye on the pressing topic, which was leaving their jobs, though she definitely planned on coming back to the getting married and having kids part. 

“Nothing really.” he shrugged. 

“Okay. What are you going to do if we move here?” Donna asked. “You must have some idea.” 

“Whatever.” he shrugged again. “There’s five universities in this area; I’ll make a lot on the lecture circuit; I’ll consult; maybe I’ll do some local campaigns; maybe I’ll do commentating for CNN.” 

“Commentating for CNN?” Donna asked sitting up. “Have you been offered something like that?” 

“Yeah.” Josh nodded. “New York City is 50 miles away from here, baby. My options are really limitless with my experience.” 

Donna sat back and thought about that for a minute. She never realized how close to New York City they actually were. He could very easily work there. The UN was there, too. There were probably any number of jobs he could do there. It had occurred to her just then that she had been focusing on him alone in this conversation and not her. What would she do? Would she want to work in a city like New York? She still had no degree, but her political experience would definitely open other doors there. 

“What would I do?” she finally asked. 

“Whatever.” he said, then smirked at her. “Nothing, if you want. You could be a wife of leisure.” 

“Okay. See, there’s that reference again.” 

“What reference?” 

“The marriage reference.” 

“That’s not what we’re discussing?” 

“Is it?” 

“I thought we were. I thought I promised you a future plans discussion while we were here.” 

“You did. How future are we talking about here?” 

“Tomorrow. Next year. How much time do you need to plan a wedding?” 

“Do *I* need?” 

“Um, do we need?” 

“That’s a bit more like it.” 

“How much time do we need?” 

“Where are we getting married?” 

“Washington.” 

“Is the President coming?” 

“Of course!” 

“How long does the secret service need?” 

“Okay.” he conceded. “I can see the getting married bit is a larger discussion.” 

“Well, no.” Donna said. “The wedding part is a larger discussion. The getting married part is short and to the point. If this is some sort of crazy-ass marriage proposal, which I think it is...” 

“Um, yeah, I guess it is.” he nodded. 

“You guess?” she laughed incredulously. “Joshua, are you proposing to me right now or not?” 

“Yes.” 

“Okay. Then my answer is yes, and that’s the end of the getting married discussion.” 

He smiled at her and leaned in to kiss her. He meant it to be a quick kiss, but then he thought that he was now officially kissing his future wife, and he found himself pushing her back into a not at all comfortable laying down position on the swing. 

“Joshua.” 

“Not now, Donna.” 

“We were having a really important conversation.” 

“Baby,” he said pulling back. “You just said you’d marry me. This is me showing happiness over this new development. Can we, I don’t know, table the rest for a few minutes?” 

“A few minutes?” she replied. “That’s hardly worth tabling a conversation of this importance.” 

“Half an hour.” 

“Try again.” 

“I’m not a young man anymore, baby.” 

“Maybe I should rethink your marriage proposal then.” 

“Now, you’re just being snarky.” 

“Forty five minutes at least.” 

“You drive a hard bargain.” 

“I’m a woman with needs.” 

“Can I get back to the showing of happiness now?” 

“By all means.” 

TBC


	14. New Beginnings

Donna yawned and stretched as she wandered downstairs and into the kitchen. She really loved waking up in the morning to that wall of windows in the kitchen and in the living room, which was right next to it. It let so much light in. She saw that Josh had started coffee before he went for his run. She wasn’t sure she heard him right this morning until she woke up again and he was gone. Josh hadn’t run in...well, she wasn’t sure when the last time was. Certainly, not since they’d been together. She thought, actually, that he hadn’t been running since before the shooting. 

She poured herself a cup of coffee and wandered out onto the porch to sit on the swing. This was becoming a bit of a ritual for them. She’d miss it when they went back to DC in a couple of days. She dangled a leg over the side of the swing and pushed herself gently back and forth with her toe. It was a little breezy this morning and she could see gray clouds out over the water. 

She smiled as she saw Josh come running around the corner of the house and finally stop at the stairs. He looked up and smiled when he saw her there, walking around a bit to catch his breath. 

“Good morning.” she smiled. 

“Morning, baby.” he panted. 

She was about to make a flirtatious remark about how hot he looked sweaty when suddenly, someone else came running around the corner of the house, as well. Donna immediately noticed that she was half dressed in running pants, and a sports bra, with a sweatshirt tied around her waist, her brown hair up in a ponytail. She stopped right before him, and smacked him in the arm. 

“I can’t believe you won!” she laughed, smiling a little too largely for Donna’s taste. “You said you haven’t been running in years.” 

“I haven’t.” he said, he looked up at Donna and smiled. “I was feeling energized this morning.” 

The mystery woman followed his gaze up to the porch where Donna was and raised her sunglasses off her face. It would just figure that she was beautiful, Donna thought dryly. 

“Who’s this?” the woman asked smiling at Donna and following him up the stairs. He walked over to Donna, leaned out and gave her an extremely pleasant good morning kiss. When he pulled away, Donna was smiling goofily up at him. 

“This,” he said not taking his eyes from hers, “is my fiancé, Donna.” 

“Josh Lyman’s getting married!” the woman exclaimed. “I don’t believe it.” 

“Just as soon as I can get her in front of someone with the power to do it.” he grinned back. 

“I thought you were asexual.” the woman chided, as Donna spit the sip of coffee she had just taken out all over the porch. 

“Nope that was just high school.” 

“You didn’t have to be asexual then.” she smiled coyly at him. 

He shrugged and sat down next to Donna on the swing, then held out his hand in gesture toward the newcomer. 

“Baby, this is Jennifer Stanton. We grew up together.” Josh introduced. “We just bumped into each other in town.” 

“Call me Jenny.” she smiled extending her hand to Donna, who shook it politely. 

“Donna.” Donna smiled in return. 

“I had heard rumors that Josh was in town.” 

“Rumors?” 

“You sneaking into town is a big deal, Josh. People have been buzzing about sightings of you for a few days now.” Jenny smiled. 

“Bette Davis, Michael Douglas, Phil Donohue, Harvey Weinstein, Linda Blair, Christopher Lloyd, Martha Stewart, all these past and present residents of Westport, and I’M the one causing a buzz?” Josh said, his eyebrows raised. 

“People like you.” Jenny shrugged. 

“Michael Bolton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Don Imus.” Josh continued to list. 

“Josh, Westport is, like, Liberal-ville. You’re the deputy chief of staff to the most liberal President in, like, memorable history. Senator Sharp’s having a baby over it. He’s practically taken up residence at the Black Duck.” 

Josh frowned and looked over at Donna. “That’s where we were going to go tonight, the place on the water.” 

“Sharp?” Donna replied. “State?” 

“Yeah.” Josh nodded. 

“You think he’s going to talk your ear off?” 

“I KNOW he’s going to talk my ear off.” Josh countered. “And I’m also sure there will conveniently be press there.” 

“Oooh!” Donna winced dramatically. “You might want to rethink this before you change the President’s economic policy again.” 

“He’s got his eye on the senate seat up for grabs in next year.” Josh continued ignoring the snark. 

“Ah.” 

“Yes.” 

“I see.” 

“Yes.” 

“You could go in disguise.” Donna suggested. 

“As?” 

“A republican.” 

“Go wash your mouth out with soap.” He shot back pointing towards the house, as Jenny watched their interaction captivated. 

“Well, I don’t think I’m going to do that. I am, however, going to get a refill on my coffee.” she stood up and smiled over at Jenny. “It was nice meeting you. Maybe we’ll see you later.” She disappeared into the house, and Josh watched her move about the kitchen through the large windows, and Jenny watched him. When Donna disappeared from view, he turned back to Jenny. 

“She’s beautiful.” Jenny noted. 

“She sure is.” he smiled. 

“Getting married?” Jenny asked. 

“Thanks for the asexual line just then, THAT’LL go over well with her.” 

“She thinks you were a ladies’ man in high school?” 

“No.” 

“Though I hear that’s changed since.” Jenny hedged. 

“Maybe that was true for a little while, but not anymore.” Josh replied. 

“Well, maybe I’ll see you at the Black Duck later.” Jenny said heading for the stairs. “If not, don’t be a stranger up here, Josh.” 

Josh watched her jog off, then headed inside to find Donna. He was now greatly in need of a shower. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I don’t know.” Donna said scrunching up her face and looking utterly adorable. “The sleigh bed over there is really pretty, but I think the spindled bed there matches the house better. 

“Baby, there’s already a bed there.” Josh reminded. They were in the middle of a furniture store in town, trying to pick out furniture for the remainder of the house. 

“That’s the bed you had growing up, Josh.” Donna reminded him. “It’s a little unnerving, you’ve DONE stuff in that bed.” 

“I’ve DONE stuff in my bed in Washington, you don’t seem bothered by that.” 

“That’s completely untrue.” 

“Why the hell would you be bothered by that?” he demanded. 

“Why?” she asked arching a brow. He nodded in challenge, so she replied, “Okay. You’re right. But so you know, the bed in my apartment, came directly from my room in Wisconsin, so if you want to compare mileage...” 

Josh stepped toward her abruptly and cupped his hand over her mouth, effectively cutting her off. 

“Don’t speak untruths, Donnatella.” He insisted. “You were a pure as the driven snow on Inauguration night.” 

He took his hand away and Donna seized the opportunity. “Where did you think I learned it all?” 

He clamped his hand back over her mouth. “As. Pure. As. The. Driven. Snow.” he enunciated again. Donna rolled her eyes and he removed his hand and replaced it with his lips. 

“Besides,” he said pulling away. “You heard what Jenny said. I was asexual in high school.” 

“Yeah, who’s Jenny?” Donna asked beginning to walk through the store. “She and her midriff seemed pretty enchanted by you.” 

“You know that girl in school every guy wanted to go out with?” Josh asked. 

“She was my best friend.” Donna nodded. 

“That was Jenny.” 

“Ah. So there IS one that got away?” Donna teased arching a brow at him. 

“No. All the guys wanted to go out with her, she wanted to go out with me.” Josh said. 

“Did you have a girlfriend?” 

“No.” 

“But you didn’t want the girl everybody wanted?” 

“I wanted to go into politics, and I wanted to be good at it.” he shrugged. “I didn’t date that much. I wanted to go to Harvard.” 

“Really?” 

“I mean, I had dates to stuff; the prom, homecoming, coming out parties.” 

“People had parties for that kind of thing?” she smiled. 

“It’s Westport.” Josh replied. “There are debutantes here.” 

“Jenny was a debutante?” 

“She was.” 

Donna paused for a second, taking in the difference in the worlds they grew up in. Donna’s parents were certainly successful. Her mother was a teacher and her father was an accountant, but they were still middle class. She didn’t ever really want for anything, but a debutante, she was not. No wonder he moved so easily among the rich and powerful. He spoke their language. 

She didn’t. 

But then again, she’d never spoken his language. They just sort of...made up their own. 

She moved through the store to the dining room sets. “I like this one.” she announced. 

“It’s not the same tone as the hutch.” Josh immediately noted. 

“So?” 

“It won’t match.” 

“It doesn’t have to.” 

“It’ll be two different wood tones.” 

“That’s fine.” Donna nodded. “You can mix your wood tones, Joshua. It gives the space a warmer feeling.” 

“It does?” 

“You’ve never noticed the wood floors and the molding aren’t the same stain color?” 

“They’re not?” She rolled her eyes and he shrugged in response. Then she nodded to the clerk that had been walking around with them and he wrote something down on his clipboard. 

“You can have this all delivered tomorrow?” Josh asked skeptically. “We’re only here for three more days.” 

“Absolutely, sir.” the clerk nodded. “It’s all in stock.” 

The three of them looked up at the ceiling simultaneously as they heard a roll of thunder. 

“You two should probably head home. That storm’s coming in right off the water.” the clerk noted nodding to the window where Josh and Donna could see the gray sky threatening to open up any minute. “I’ll process this and we’ll call you with a delivery time.” 

Josh took Donna’s hand and lead her out of the store, to his Audi parked out front. She hopped inside as they heard another thunderclap. 

“It’s getting REALLY dark.” she noted uneasily. 

“It’s coming in off the ocean.” 

“Long Island Sound is an estuary.” Donna said. 

“Yes, I know.” 

“I didn’t know that.” 

“I did.” 

“You said the water will eventually lead to the Atlantic Ocean.” 

“It will.” 

“I just feel a little bit better knowing that when the Donnatella is ready for her maiden voyage, if we lose our navigation, we’ll only...” 

“End up in New York.” Josh finished. 

“Yes.” 

He smiled and linked his hand with hers. He loved that she was talking like that, making innane future plans for them like that. And here, to boot. It wasn’t as if they were going to take the boat to the Potomac, after all. 

“Things are really expensive around here, Josh.” She said hesitantly. 

“Yup.” 

“I’m not...I don’t know...” she stumbled. 

“It’s just money, Donna.” he said watching the sky and the road at the same time. It looked like it was going to rain any second, and there was now lightning, too. 

“Yeah, but...” 

“I swear to God, don’t even worry about that.” Josh said quickly. 

“Josh, these people around here are rich. They grew up rich. It’s what they know, and I...” 

“Swap trivia with the President of the United States.” Josh finished. “Trust me, baby. When they all meet you, they will know right off that it’s you who is out of their league. They may have money, but the President of the United States doesn’t know their name.” 

“And what if I go back to school when we move here?” Donna countered. “What are people around here going to think about that?” 

“I don’t give a shit.” he said with a slight rise to his voice as he drove up the driveway to the house and parked the car in front. He turned to look at her. “I’m not kidding with you, Donna. This place is all about who you know, and you know the most powerful people in the country. The absolute last thing I want you to do is change who you are because it will, quite literally, break my heart. There is nobody here you need to impress.” 

“Okay.” she smiled with a nod and the rain began to pelt on the car. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Because I will sell this house and high-tail us out of here so fast...” 

“Okay.” she nodded again. 

“You’re not going to be some Stepford Wife.” 

“A book and movie that was based on this town.” 

“I mean it.” 

“I know you do.” she smiled. “And I’m really happy to hear you don’t have crazy expectations that I didn’t know about.” 

“Just the same amazing Donnatella I’ve always gotten.” 

She leaned across the center console and captured his lips. His hand immediately came up softly to her face and he pulled her closer. 

“We’re should relocate inside.” Josh said huskily. 

“We’re going to get soaked.” 

“Wet’s a good look on you.” 

“Naked’s a good look on you.” 

“I can do that right here.” 

“I can’t do wet in here.” 

“I beg to differ.” 

“Pervert.” 

He pulled away and scrambled out of the car, surprising Donna by running around to her side to open the door for her. He yanked her out of the car, and together they ran full speed to the back door, laughing and taking a minute to catch their breath once they were under the enclosure of the porch. In the few short days that they’d been there, they sort of developed the habit of entering and exiting through the back doors that lead directly into the living room. 

There was a loud thunderclap and Donna yelped and jumped into Josh’s arms. 

“Baby, I didn’t know you were afraid of thunderstorms.” he said softly pushing her drenched hair off her face. 

“This one is REALLY loud.” she confessed. 

“It’s because it’s coming in off the ocean.” Josh said. “There’s nothing to muffle the noise around here like there is in the city.” 

“It’s really, really loud, and really, really dark.” Donna noted. 

“Yeah. I think the house lost power.” Josh said as he untangled himself from her to unlock the door. 

They stumbled through the door and Donna immediately moved into the kitchen to look for candles. There was still a little bit of daylight left, but with the dark storm, they were quickly losing the light. After a quick blitzkrieg on the cabinets and pantries, she came back with an armload of candles and a lighter and began to place them around the living room. Josh dropped onto the one couch currently occupying the living room across from the piano as she moved about the living room, carefully lighting the candles. He didn’t have anything else to do, so he watched her slowly move from candle to candle. He noted how she became more and more illuminated with each candle she lit. She finished with three along the mantle, then turned and looked at him. 

He saw her smile at him, standing there soaked, with her clothes clinging to her and the soft candlelight surrounding her, and it was long moments before he realized he had been holding his breath. 

He pushed himself off the couch and slowly moved to her. He cupped her neck with one hand and wrapped the other around her waist and kissed her deeply. As they began to peel each other’s wet clothes off, the only sound in the house was their increasingly heavy breathing and the rain and thunder outside. 

They began to move around the room, blindly in search of a flat surface, and bumped up against the piano. Josh smirked against Donna’s lips as he plucked her off the floor and deposited her on top of the piano. She yelped as her bare behind came in contact with the cold top surface of the piano. 

“Joshua,” she said breaking apart from his lips and tipping her head back. “This is the piano.” She meant to protest, but her body voted against her mind as she pulled him closer to her with her legs wrapped firmly around him. 

“Yeah.” he said in a broken voice. “I think my head is going to explode with the hotness of it.” 

“How will I ever look at this again while you’re playing it and not want to do this?” 

“I don’t know, but that’s a hot thought, too.” 

He gently pushed her back so she was lying draped across the piano, and soon, all thoughts of the piano and the storm that raged outside were pushed from her mind. 

TBC


	15. New Beginnings

Josh fidgeted uncomfortably on the couch in the Oval Office. Leo and the President were studying him incredulously. 

“Are you serious?” Leo asked. 

“Yes.” Josh said quietly. He chanced a glance at Leo and immediately saw what he wasn’t all together sure wasn’t disappointment in his gaze. 

“You’re resigning?” Leo asked for the second time since Josh had come in here. 

“Yes.” Josh said again. 

“And Donna is, too, I assume.” Leo concluded. 

“Yes.” Josh repeated. Though Donna got the lucky end of the stick in that she didn’t have to resign to the President and Leo face-to-face. Technically, she had to resign to him, which she did. 

Right after sex on the piano. 

“Why?” Leo asked, still trying to wrap his mind around what his deputy was saying to them. This made no sense to Leo. Josh lived and breathed politics. He always had. Josh had fallen on the sword for the administration time and time again, and Leo had likewise stood on the tracks between Josh and the train. It’s what made them great. But if Leo stopped for a minute and allowed himself to really think, he’d see that it was actually Donna that had made Josh great. She inspired him. Josh was always motivated, but motivation would only get you so far; inspiration took you the rest of the way. 

“And you’ve thought this through?” Leo asked. Josh could see that it was half-paternal and half Chief of Staff. Leo walked a fine line with Josh. Sometimes things got a little blurry. 

“I worked on the boat.” Josh said simply. 

“Well, that’s that then.” Leo said throwing his hands up in defeat. 

“You what?” The President asked finally speaking. “Will someone please explain to me what the hell THAT means. What boat?” 

“It’s a metaphor in Josh’s family.” Leo explained. “It means his mind is made up.” 

The President turned and studied Josh for a long moment. He looked at him so long, Josh began to squirm again. 

“Well, it’ll have to be August then.” the President finally said, waving his hand holding his eyeglasses around. 

“What will have to be August, sir?” Josh asked. 

“The wedding.” the President replied confidently. “The wedding will have to be August in the Rose Garden. The secret service will have the proverbial cow if I go anywhere else, and I’m not missing this wedding. Well, I suppose if something explodes somewhere in the world during the ceremony, I might have to duck out for a few minutes. But the Rose Garden is really quite beautiful in the summer.” 

“I don’t think I can get married in the White House.” Josh replied. 

“Why the hell not?” the President demanded. 

“I think it might piss Congress off.” Josh replied. 

“Please.” the President scoffed. “It’s my house. If I want to have people over in my back yard, I’m damn well gonna do it.” 

“Is that what CJ is going to tell the press, sir?” Josh asked. 

“As a matter of fact, yes.” the President replied. 

“Sir.” Josh pleaded. 

“I won reelection, Josh; I can have a BBQ.” the President continued. 

“I’m not sure a backyard BBQ wedding was exactly what Donna was planning, sir.” Josh said reluctantly. 

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll serve something a little bit classier than burgers, Josh.” the President said with a twinkle in his eye. “CHARLIE!!” Sometimes Josh really wondered if Charlie literally stood on the other side of the door, because no sooner had the President called his name, then Charlie was entering. 

“Yes, sir?” 

“Charlie, go get Donna and bring her here, please.” the President requested, as Josh’s eyes widened. 

“Yes, sir.” Charlie smiled ducking out. 

“Can we please get back to the fact that we’re losing our deputy chief of staff.” Leo pleaded. 

“He said he worked on the boat, Leo. You said that was final.” the President replied. 

“Right, but he’s not walking out the door in two weeks either.” Leo replied looking over to Josh. 

“No, he’ll have to stay through August. Otherwise I probably will get smacked by Congress...again.” 

“August, sir...”Josh began. 

“It’s three months, Josh.” the President replied. “We’ll need to have a replacement in place when you leave for a seamless transition. And YOU are telling Toby this, not me.” The President pointed forcefully at Josh to emphasize his point. 

The door opened again and Charlie entered with Donna in tow. When she saw the look on Josh’s face, her eyes went wide. 

“Donnatella!” the President smiled standing and crossing the Oval Office to hug her warmly. “I hear congratulations are in order.” 

“Yes, sir.” Donna smiled. “Thank you, sir.” 

“I was just telling Josh that you should have the wedding in August in the Rose Garden.” the President announced. 

“August!” Donna exclaimed. August was three months away. She was supposed to plan a wedding in three months? 

“We’ll get you help with the planning.” the President waved. “Debbie can help you. I don’t think she actually does anything of importance anyway.” 

“Sir,” Donna said with a frantic glance at Josh, who shrugged helplessly in return. “I really don’t think we could impose like that.” 

“It wouldn’t be an imposition, Donna.” the President assured. “It’s not like I’m going to be doing the work.” 

“But, sir...” Donna pleaded again. 

“I’m all done with you, Josh.” the President said. “I want to talk to Donna for a little bit.” 

Josh’s eyes widened again. How do you tell the leader of the free world, you don’t want him alone in a room with your fiancé? 

As it turned out, you didn’t. Leo ushered Josh out of the office and shrugged as the door closed behind them. Donna tried not to show her nervousness. 

“I know the offer’s a little overwhelming, Donna.” the President said gently ushering her to the sofas to sit down. “But I think it’s the very least I can do for Josh. No one on the senior staff has served me more faithfully and passionately than he has, and he nearly paid the ultimate price. He’ll never accept it if I tell him that, but it really IS the least I can do to repay his loyalty. And yours.” 

“You’re right, sir.” Donna nodded. “If you put it like that, he’d never accept.” 

“Will you help me out, Donna? Will you help me do this for him?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Did you have your heart set on someplace else?” 

“No, sir.” Donna smiled. “I think the White House is the perfect place for us to get married.” 

“Great! It’s settled then. Debbie can help you out with anything you need.” 

The President rose and Donna followed suit. That was probably the most surreal conversation she’d ever had in the Oval Office before. When she got back to the bullpen, Josh was all over her. 

“What happened?” he demanded. 

“We’re getting married in August in the Rose Garden.” Donna replied walking back to her desk, with him hot on her heels. 

“The thing is, Donna, is sometimes the President will use the fact that he’s President to get what he wants.” Josh said. “And this wedding is about what YOU want.” 

“Thank you, Joshua, having never met the man before.” Donna quipped. 

“I just...” 

“Think about it for a second, Joshua.” Donna said cutting him off. “Is there anywhere else on the planet more fitting for us to get married at?” 

Josh stopped at her words. “No.” he smiled shaking his head. 

“Is there anywhere else you want to get married?” she continued. 

“No.” he smiled. 

“So what’s the problem?” she shrugged. 

“I want to make sure it’s what YOU want.” he insisted. 

“How many girls getting married this year can say they got married at the White House?” Donna countered. 

“Just you.” 

“Just me.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hi, Donna. This is Linda from the First Lady’s Chief of Staff’s office.” said a not so friendly voice through Donna’s phone. “Ms. Gardner would like to see you for a few minutes.” 

“I’m afraid I can’t come over this afternoon.” Donna smiled into the phone. 

“But-” Linda sputtered. 

“I’m working on something all afternoon for the actual White House Chief of Staff, and can’t get away until it’s done.” Donna apologized. “I can, however, multi-task and I’d be happy to talk to her on the phone while I work.” The last thing Donna wanted to do was appease Amy, but she also didn’t want Amy screaming at Josh because she refused to talk to her. 

“Um...I’ll check with Ms. Gardner and get back to you.” Linda said hesitantly. 

Donna hung up her phone and went back to work. Not surprisingly, 15 minutes later, Amy showed up at her desk. 

“I can’t say I’m used to being blown off, Donna.” Amy said by way of haughty greeting. 

“Well, neither is Leo, Amy, and since I actually work for him and not you, today’s your day to get blown off.” 

“You work for Josh and they can put anything they want in your paperwork.” Amy retorted rolling her eyes. 

“I’ll be sure to tell Leo that when I see him later. He’ll be most happy to hear it.” Donna replied. “Is there something I can actually do for you?” 

“Yes. You can stop Josh from committing career suicide.” 

“Career suicide? That sounds dire. What’s he done now?” 

“He’s resigning.” Amy replied and Donna stopped where she was moving around the cubicle. They hadn’t really told anyone that yet. 

“Who told you that?” 

“The First Lady.” 

“I hardly think it’s career suicide, Amy.” Donna said returning to pulling the files she needed for Leo’s research. 

“Leaving the White House?” Amy retorted. “He’ll fall off the face of the Earth.” 

“He’ll be commentating for CNN.” Donna replied. “I’d hardly call that falling off the face of the Earth. More people will know who he is then, than they do now. I don’t see that as a bad thing for his career.” 

“He’ll be out of Washington.” 

“Yes, he will.” 

“And out of touch.” 

“I highly doubt that. He’s not without extensive contacts here. I’m sure he’s not going to give them up.” 

Amy took a step closer to Donna and lowered her voice. “He’s putting his career on the back burner to play house with you. If he has any shot at a senate seat, he needs to stay in Washington.” 

Donna’s eyes widened at what Amy had said. A senate seat? Josh had never mentioned running for office before. Amy could see she made her mark, smiled snidely and left. 

Donna turned back and looked at Josh’s office, who had chosen that moment to come out and talk to his new assistant. Donna took a deep breath and strode purposefully for him. 

Josh was rattling off instructions to the new assistant when Donna grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him into his office, slamming the door behind him. Normally, she’d never do something like this to him in front of the staff, but she was pissed. 

“Something you wish to discuss?” he asked raising his eyebrows. 

“When the hell were you going to tell me you wanted to run for the senate?” she demanded. 

“Donna, you don’t think if I wanted to run for the senate I would have mentioned that sometime in the six years we’ve known one another?” he countered. 

“Amy said --” 

“Amy always thought that’s the direction my career should go in. But the thing she always seemed to forget was the little fact that it’s, in fact, my career.” Josh retorted. “That conversation was always one-sided.” 

“She did this to start a fight.” Donna concluded. 

“Yes, she did.” 

“Too bad it started a fight between the wrong people.” Donna said pivoting purposefully and heading for the door. 

“And my kitten’s back.” Josh smiled stopping her before she got to the door. “Normally, I like watching you tangle with Amy, but today, I say, just leave it alone.” 

Donna looked up at him and for once, didn’t see a fight in his eyes. He actually seemed content with his decision. He seemed truly happy, and that, to Donna was worth far more than tearing Amy Gardner’s hair out. 

TBC


	16. New Beginnings

“Baby, what the hell are you doing out here?” Josh demanded. Leo and Josh had decided to promote one of Josh’s assistant deputies. She was working out well, so Josh and Donna had decided to take a long weekend up to Connecticut to continue to get the house ready for the move. Josh had woken up alone and gone on a hunt to find Donna. She was outside close to the water, digging up a large patch of grass. 

“I’m digging a garden.” Donna answered bouncing onto the shovel to get it further into the ground. 

“A garden?” 

Donna nodded and began pointing to the outline of the garden she had laid out with the garden hose. “See the hose? That marks the perimeter.” Josh’s mouth fell open as he saw the size of the area she intended to dig up. 

“Donna, this is enormous.” 

“Well, it’s going to be both an herb garden and a vegetable garden.” Donna informed. “This is the perfect spot for it. This area of the yard gets full sun almost the entire day.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me you wanted a garden?” Josh asked. “I could have hired someone to do that digging.” 

“I don’t know.” Donna shrugged, wiping the sweat from her forehead. “There’s something about doing it yourself, you know? Working the land.” 

“Working the land?” Josh asked arching a brow. 

“Yeah.” she nodded enthusiastically. 

“Okay. Be that as it may, it’s 8 o’clock in the morning. How long have you been out here?” 

“A little over an hour.” 

“Isn’t it, like, way too late to plant anything?” 

“Yeah.” Donna nodded. “But I can dig it up this year and plan it out. That way in the spring, I can just amend the soil and plant.” 

“How do you know all this stuff?” Josh asked. 

“I looked it --” 

“You looked it up on the internet.” Josh finished with a nod, realizing he should have known better. She’d probably had this fully researched weeks ago when they had decided to come up. 

“Do you get a lot of animals up here?” she asked continuing with her digging. 

“Deer.” Josh replied. 

“Well, deer don’t like herbs; but they like vegetables, so I’ll have to remember to get spray to keep them away.” 

“Do you want me to help you?” Josh asked. 

“You’re not going to get a rash from manual labor outside?” she smiled. 

“Don’t be snarky.” Josh chided heading over to the boat shed. He looked around a bit until he found another shovel and came back out to join her. “How about I start over here and we’ll meet in the middle?” He suggested moving to the other side of her mapped out space. “How long is this going to take us?” 

“Probably most of the day.” she huffed bouncing up on the shovel again. 

“What?!” Josh squeaked. 

“We’re digging a garden and covering a lot of area. It’ll probably take us most of the day to dig.” Donna confirmed. 

“We should just --” he began. 

“I’m not hiring anybody to do it.” Donna quickly insisted. She agreed with him that it was hard work, but it certainly wasn’t impossible. Plus, she was used to doing things for herself and not hiring other people to do things. 

Josh pouted and continued to dig, while Donna took a minute to admire the muscles in his back work under his t-shirt. They worked in silence for a while, until Donna felt his arms come around her from behind and she felt his lips on her neck. 

“Joshua,” as gently scolded. “We have work to do.” 

“Can’t help it.” he murmured. “You’re all sweaty, and wearing this little tank top and those short shorts.” 

She turned in his arms and met his kiss, as his hands slipped underneath her tank top to caress her back. 

“You know what we need for back here?” He whispered against her lips. 

“Mmm, what?” 

“A hammock.” 

“You’re right, it does.” she smiled wickedly in return. Just as this kiss was showing promising of evolving into something else, Donna heard someone call Josh’s name from the front of the house. She looked over his shoulder and saw Jenny rounding the house to the back. “Oh look, it’s your friend and her midriff.” Donna said, stepping back from him, but not too far as to cause him to drop his arms. 

Josh turned around, and sure enough, Jenny was coming toward them dressed like she was the last time they saw her. “Jealous, Donna?” Josh smiled turning back to her. 

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Donna scoffed. “But did you know she works for the New York Post?” Josh’s eyes widened. 

“No.” 

“She does.” Donna said quietly. “I even asked Kris in the press corps and she confirmed it.” 

“Josh!” Jenny called again, and Josh finally turned around to acknowledge her presence. “I was wondering if you heard me the first time.” she laughed as she approached. 

“I was a little...busy.” Josh said smirking. 

“Yes, I saw.” Jenny replied easily. 

“How do you always know when I’m here?” Josh asked. “Do you have a radar on my car?” 

Jenny shook her head smiling and stretching out a leg, causing her show more stomach. “I was driving by yesterday and I saw you guys outside. I thought I’d see you out running this morning.” 

“I’m getting a different form of exercise this morning.” Josh replied. Normally, Donna scoffed and smacked him for his lewdness, but this time, she curled an arm around his waist. Maybe she was a little jealous. 

“Ah.” said Jenny. “So, when are you guys moving up permanently?” 

“Why?” Josh asked. It was not public knowledge yet that Josh was resigning as Deputy Chief of Staff, though is replacement was aware of it, and there were rumors around the White House of Josh shifting more and more duties to that person. 

“Just curious.” she shrugged. 

“I bet your editor is, too.” Josh replied. 

“So, I’ve been outed.” Jenny laughed good-naturedly. 

“If there’s any White House exclusives, they go to the White House press corps. One, you have a representative at the White House; and two, they go to the Senior White House correspondent, and that’s Danny Cancannon at the Washington Post.” 

“You and Danny don’t go as far back as you and I do.” Jenny cooed. 

“Jenny, there are actually things of importance out there to write about.” Josh said. “I hardly think my career is worthy of the front page.” 

“Maybe not.” Jenny shrugged. “But an exclusive with the Deputy Chief of Staff is at least worth a promotion.” 

“So is writing about things that mean something to your readers.” Josh countered. “You should think about doing that. In the meantime, put your midriff away and call CJ Cregg if you’re looking for the White House to comment on a story of yours.” He turned his attention back to Donna. “While you’re doing that, I’m going to be washing the back yard off of my fiancé.” 

He turned and tugged Donna along towards the house, leaving Jenny behind. 

TBC


	17. New Beginnings

Donna awoke to the soft sound of the piano drifting upstairs. That answered the question of where her new husband had disappeared to. She rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. They arrived home to Connecticut in the early morning hours, the wedding reception in the East Room having gone very late. Since the day before the wedding was to be their last day of work, Josh had suggested they come up here after the wedding. 

Donna smiled as she remember the look on his face as she walked towards him on her father’s arm in the Rose Garden. When she finally stood before him, he pulled her to him and kissed her soundly right there in front of everyone, causing a few catcalls and snarky comments. Sam’s speech as best man was short and to the point, while the President’s was so long, it made Donna’s arm tired, while holding her glass. 

She rolled out of bed and grabbed a short, silky robe, twisted her hair up and followed the sound of the music. She entered the living room where Josh was seated at the piano, shirtless, wearing only pajama pants, two glasses of chilled mimosas on the piano before him. 

She sat down next to him on the piano bench and wrapped her arms around his waist, snuggling into his shoulder. 

“It’s beautiful.” she said softly of the piece he was playing. 

“It’s Mozart.” he said. “Sonata in G Major.” 

“I know. I thought it was faster.” 

“I’m playing it slower.” 

“I could get used to waking up to you playing the piano half-naked.” 

“You deserve to wake up to sunshine and beautiful music.” 

“And look,” she gestured smiling. “you’ve brought an abundance of both.” 

“I have.” 

“Mmm, it’s not perfect enough, it’s missing something.” Donna said shaking her head. 

“Missing something!” Josh yelped. “Sunshine. Music. Your man. What am I missing?” 

Donna leaned in and kissed him softly, causing him to skip a measure of the song. When she pulled away, he was smiling. 

“Now it’s complete. There’s your smile.” she smiled. 

“So, the order is sunshine, music and my smile?” 

“For the rest of our lives.” Donna nodded. 

“That’s a tall order.” Josh noted as he ended the piece he was playing and took his hands off the keys. 

“Well, you can vary the details along the way.” Donna replied. “Just as long as you’re smiling.” 

He turned and straddled the bench, then pulled her to him again. “You’re beautiful. You were beautiful yesterday, too. And I can’t believe I get to keep you.” 

“Keep me?” she said arching a brow. “I’m not a puppy that followed you home, Joshua.” 

“Given the way we met, you kind of are.” 

“All right.” Donna nodded. “Then why is it that you’re the one doing all the heeling?” 

“Ouch. Touche.” 

“Yes.” 

He turned and took the glasses off the piano, handing one to her. “Have a mimosa.” 

“Baby, you woke me up playing Mozart half naked, you’re getting lucky. There’s not need to get me drunk.” she chuckled. 

“I already am lucky.” He whispered. 

She smiled and raised her glass up. “I’m assuming you want to toast to something?” 

“No, I wanted to get you drunk and take advantage of you.” he said shaking his head. 

“Joshua!” 

“We should toast to something.” 

“What should we toast to?” 

“To new beginnings.” he said clinking her glass with his. 

“To new beginnings.” 

THE END


End file.
